The bumps near the bumpiness: 16th SW update

Thanks to several WSB’ers for e-mailing us in the past day and a half or so to point out that those speed bumps have just gone in on 16th SW north of South Seattle Community College. The ironic and head-scratch-inducing aspect of the installation, however, is that they are very close to the massively pitted stretch of 16th SW that was supposed to be repaved this year (but as we reported last month is now on hold till 2009). So what’s up with that? we were asked. We in turn relayed the question to SDOT, whose communications chief Rick Sheridan managed to track down the vacationing project engineer to retrieve this explanation:

The speed cushions installed by SDOT on 16th Avenue SW are part of a series requested and approved as a small Neighborhood Street Fund (NSF) project. After the community requested them through the NSF process, SDOT studied vehicle speeds in the area and determined that speeding could be controlled with these devices. Speed cushions will be installed on 16th Avenue SW, SW Dawson Street and 21st Avenue SW.

When the work is complete, 16th Avenue SW will have two sets to help address speeding. The first set, reported by your readers, was installed in an area that is not scheduled for repaving. The second set will be installed in an area of 16th Avenue SW that, funds permitting, will be repaved and so we are waiting until that work is accomplished.

Got questions? We do our best to get answers, so we’re always glad to get notes about sightings like this … we don’t say “thanks” often enough. Any time: editor@westseattleblog.com (or if you’re on Twitter, @westseattleblog)

2 Replies to "The bumps near the bumpiness: 16th SW update"

  • SpeakLoud December 12, 2008 (7:01 pm)

    I live on this stretch and can tell you that speeding is a huge problem-there are 2 very tight bends that cause numerous accidents-mostly that head into peoples fences and side rails-late at night you can hear street racers so I’m glad to see something being done-thank you to whom ever it was that requested the funds :)

  • Doug December 29, 2008 (8:39 am)

    I dont live on this stretch, but do drive it daily. Speeders are everywhere, are we now going to put in speed bumps on Delridge and I-5? This is an arterial. If you live on it then you can expect higher speeds than a side street. Speed bumps that reduce your speed to a slower than legal limit on an arterial are a waste of our dollars. The article states that they are only installing 1 set of bumps right now and another set after the repaving project. There are currently 3 sets of bumps and the first one, near the college, is certainly in an area that needs repaving.

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