2-year-long pump-station project: Alki Council briefing Thursday

The previously projected completion dates have come and gone. So what’s up with the 53rd Avenue Pump Station expansion project that King County Wastewater Treatment‘s been working on at Alki for two years now? If you have questions – here’s your chance to get firsthand answers. KCWTD’s Martha Tuttle is booked as the guest speaker, with Q/A, at this Thursday’s Alki Community Council meeting, 7 pm, Alki UCC (6115 SW Hinds). (Our most recent update on the project was this story from December, when the county provided some underground photos and said they were still going through a “long punch list” with the contractor.)

12 Replies to "2-year-long pump-station project: Alki Council briefing Thursday"

  • Dale February 14, 2010 (12:15 pm)

    I’ve worked on high rise projects that take less time to complete!! Seems like much longer that two years

    • WSB February 14, 2010 (12:36 pm)

      If you follow the link on the “two years” phrase, it goes back to our update from early February 2008, when the county announced construction was about to begin. Ergo, 2 years.

  • PeterT February 14, 2010 (12:46 pm)

    I bike around this thing every day. Over the past three weeks, it looks like they’ve started doing grounds work on the sidewalk and bike path to restore it before removing the fence.

    This means it should be ready by, oh, what…May ?

  • KT February 14, 2010 (2:44 pm)

    It will be ready when it is ready…I no longer have any faith in what the County tells us.

  • David February 14, 2010 (3:28 pm)

    Will WSB be staffing the Thursday night meeting?

  • JollyRoger February 14, 2010 (4:49 pm)

    We’ve walked Alki (and around this site) nearly every day of the last 2 years. Just for grins, we often just sit down and watch the “action”. It’s just another example of how inefficiently government projects are managed. We think maybe we could have had this done in 3 months using little more than a couple of shovels (and a little initiative). Of course, we probably wouldn’t have poured – and then jack hammered out – huge slabs of concrete either. They took 3 days to lay sod when it was really just a 2 hour job. The list goes on and on… Was this part of the stimulous package?

    Same old problem – no accountability.

  • noreaster February 14, 2010 (5:24 pm)

    Anyone know what they’re doing art-wise on this project to make it all pretty since I think 1% of the budget of this project (and all county public works projects) has to go to art? And I hope keeping the recent graffiti there isn’t their answer…

  • miws February 14, 2010 (6:12 pm)

    noreaster, I believe they’re going to put down some lovely little bicycle shaped symbols on the pavement, ;)

    .

    Mike

  • sun*e February 14, 2010 (11:20 pm)

    Mike, LOL!!! That gave me such a chuckle… thanks for that! :)

  • alki_2008 February 15, 2010 (3:17 am)

    @jollyroger – a lot of the “action” was underground, so just because YOU didn’t see something doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. There were plenty of people working hard on the project, so it’s not fair to paint everyone with the same brush if you saw a few people that didn’t seem to be working hard.

  • on board February 15, 2010 (8:00 am)

    While alki_2008 is technically correct, there has really been absolutely ZERO urgency demonstrated in getting this project complete. You go by at 2pm on a work day and there is zero activity.
    There has been zero recognition that they have blocked one of the most popular paths in the City for 2 years, offering no meaningful and safe detour. there has been zero recognition that they have blocked the path as a transportation facility either. They could have moved the fences a month ago. Furthermore, communication on this project has been deplorable. The sign still says Fall 2009, and the website had not been modified until WSB nagged them in December. In short, the safety and mobility of the Alki community has been an afterthought at best.

    As for the length of this project, it really seems to be a case where it could certainly have been done in half the time if they allocated resources more efficiently. The Spokane Street Viaduct project is taking about the same amount of time and look at the difference in scale!

  • ali February 15, 2010 (11:41 am)

    in the mood of chuckling,…. i actually had this thought the other day, while cycling by on the way to work: if i could have excavated the underground area with a fancy souvenir spoon, and taken toothpics and superglue and built an entire underground colony of barbie houses, complete with miniature kitchen appliances, houses, cars, and streets, in the space available, i bet i could have completed it in the time it has taken them to do this work, and i still would have beaten the contractor by a year or so.

Sorry, comment time is over.