Reminder: Fauntleroy Way road work just revved up again

| Transportation | West Seattle news | West Seattle traffic alerts

Quoting one driver’s frustrated note a short time ago on Twitter, “Seven minutes to get through Fauntleroy and California!” (map) That’s because as previewed last week, the Fauntleroy Way road-rebuilding work has revved up again today. At the aforementioned intersection, this means traffic’s down to 1 lane each way, and it also means you can’t use the north entrance to West Seattle Thriftway during work hours:

(The store’s west and east entrances are open as usual.) As per the city bulletin from last week, grinding work is also happening on the eastbound lanes further north along the road-rebuilding stretch, which runs all the way to SW Edmunds. The official city project-info/overview/updates page is here; the project is expected to continue into October, but the Fauntleroy/California work that started up again today is supposed to be done by the end of the week, “weather permitting,” per SDOT.

WSM July 13, 2009 (1:23 pm)

Are they going to finish the west side of Fauntleroy, or are we going to have to live with the patchwork that exists now? The ride goes from smooth to rough to smooth. Looks terrible and seems very incomplete.

After reading the Times this weekend, maybe I should not be surprised.

WSB July 13, 2009 (1:27 pm)

The grinding work (follow the link to last week’s story) is part of that. In addition, as per earlier reports, the road rebuilding is being done in three sections – the road itself was actually built in three sections, with three different types of material, over the past half-century-plus (the middle, the part with the most frequently occurring potholes, was originally open for streetcar tracks and other uses, and it had the flimsiest material, relatively speaking) – TR

timmy July 13, 2009 (1:46 pm)

WSM –

The way I understand it the city is just patching panels on the west side to save money; but the middle and East side will be all new asphalt. The new panels seem smooth, but the overall ride is ruined by the mix with the old panels.

Luckily they are using a contractor instead of city maintenance crews, or things might be worse!

Sue July 13, 2009 (2:52 pm)

timmy, SDOT told me that they will be repaving all of it when done, because they need to restripe the lanes as well for the new configuration (one lane in each direction, a center turn lane, and a bike lane). There are no plans to pave only part of it, from what they’ve said.

WSM July 13, 2009 (4:05 pm)

I hope they plan to pave the entire roadway. Looking at the work done on 35th Ave SW, I don’t have high hopes.

SeattleJoe July 15, 2009 (10:22 pm)

Enjoy the parking lot that is Fauntleroy.

Taking away 2 car lanes isn’t the answer, it’s the problem.

PMCG July 23, 2009 (12:12 pm)

Did the contractor run out of signs aswell when they moved to the other sides resurfacing…

I was blocked from going up Graham from Fauntleroy 2 days ago by a 12 inch tall pile of asphault, 2 construction trucks were partially blocking the intersection in the construction lane and 3 workers stood in awe of the traffic backin up while apparently counting down to the end of the shift with tools down.

After I sat in the jam for 5 minutes I came back down graham from the other way to park only to find the pile of asphault was the “ramp” to get from the low lane to the high lane if you could swerve in time to miss the construction truck and other traffic using the ramp effectively to jump the ridge… while the 3 workers commented on the weather.

My point is theres no way to know what lanes are closed, what streets are blocked off, and whether the street around the next bend is blocked off..

The road crew seem to be winging it, a little here a little there.. signs… pphhfff who needs signs drivers will work it out on there own!

Or am I just asking too much?

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