Alki pump-station site update: Path opens as promised

That photo was just tweeted by Mike Heavey (@mjheavey) – who says the barricades have just been moved at the 53rd Avenue Pump Station Project site on Alki, and the path’s open. So the promise made at last night’s Alki Community Council meeting by King County’s Martha Tuttle – that the path would open today – has been kept. Next up, as reported in our story – about a month of road work to rebuild the outside lane.

9 Replies to "Alki pump-station site update: Path opens as promised"

  • cathyw February 19, 2010 (4:48 pm)

    Yay! Thanks so much for keeping us updated on this project.

  • Pam February 20, 2010 (7:56 am)

    It was a beautiful walk last night – the grass and benches are a wonderful change!

  • star55 February 20, 2010 (9:22 am)

    Wait is this an early April Fools joke???

  • on board February 20, 2010 (1:12 pm)

    Kudos to getting this open again, and kudos to WSB for staying on top of this.

    I went and checked it out today and everything looks quite nice with one exception. They placed the new bench in the multi-use trail! The new bench protrudes perhaps 3-4ft into the travelway. Anyone who uses this and other trails like it knows that with two directions of travel, and a variety of users including skaters, walkers, and cyclists of varying abilities, that the path can become quite congested at times. This will create a dangerous obstacle if not fixed. I sent a note to the County staff, Ms Tuttle, but don’t have much faith that they will be receptive to fixing this.

    You wouldn’t put a bench in Alki Ave that cars had to avoid, why would you put one on the trail? I love the idea of adding new benches, but they need to leave the trail uncompromised.

  • PeterT February 20, 2010 (6:28 pm)

    I rode the path today, and came upon the bench in the middle of the pathway. My first thought was that I was off the pathway, but no, I checked again, and that bench is plumb in the middle. This is asinine. We wait a year and a half for the work to be done, and find this ? It really does present a safety issue. Southbound bike traffic has to go on the northbound side. Walkers get munged in there, as well. On a heavy traffic day like today, everybody was squeesing in. Can you share Ms Tuttle’s address, please ?

  • on board February 20, 2010 (9:01 pm)

    Martha.Tuttle@kingcounty.gov

    alternatively you can contact the City, who will very much care that they screwed this up. WalkAndBike@Seattle.gov

  • PeterT February 21, 2010 (12:44 pm)

    Thanks ! I took pictures today, and will be sending them in with the email to Ms Tuttle and the ‘walkandbike’ contact. I know Mr. Mayor is an avid cyclist, so if I don’t get an appopriate response, he’ll get an email, as well.

    When I was out there taking shots, I heard comments along the lines of ‘who’s bright idea was this ?’ and a couple that were relatively unprintable. Apparently, we aren’t the only folks who feel this way….

  • PeterT February 22, 2010 (3:28 pm)

    On my bike ride today, while crossing the pump station area, I met up with an engineer working on the project, and asked him about the bench. He pointed out the caps that are under the bench, but protrude about an inch above the sidewalk. He said something to the effect of “we haven’t made them flush with the sidewalk yet, but will shortly. The bench is there to prevent people from tripping on the caps until we do that.”

    Well…OK. But it bears watching to see if they do it.

    To their credit, the back of the bench was wrapped in yellow ‘caution’ marker tape today, unlike yesterday when it was bare.

  • Susan March 1, 2010 (6:00 pm)

    The bench is still there, with ragged yellow “Caution” tape, and it looks like an enraged citizen took a sledgehammer to one of the planks. Any update on getting it taken out? I’m sending an email to Martha Tuttle and WalkAndBike.

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