In our continuing quest to get answers to lingering questions, we asked the Seattle DOT about two things — what’s going to be done about the excess sand on the roads, and what about those raised lane markers that are no longer in place – here are the answers, from Marybeth Turner:
Our night crews are sweeping streets. We have six sweepers out each night. We started sweeping Saturday night in cooperation with Seattle Public Utilities to keep drains unclogged to avoid flooding. We will continue sweeping until we have covered all the streets we sanded. We follow the same priority as responding to snow–major arterial streets first. Also, we are giving priority to requests from Metro Transit and other agencies. It is a slow process–it takes more than one pass to pick up the sand. The sand is recycled–filtered and cleaned–by a private firm–for reuse.
Lane markings, including the raised buttons, took a beating during the storm. We will be addressing these during our annual street marking maintenance program. In general, the marking requires dry pavement. We will give priority to areas where the lack of markings is a particular safety concern.
She says you can report those areas of concern to 684-ROAD or by using the same online form you’d use for pothole reports (choose the “minor paving repairs” option) – find it here. P.S. The mayor’s having another media briefing about storm response, 11 am tomorrow. We couldn’t get to the one called on short notice Christmas Eve, but we’ll be there for this one.
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