FOLLOWUP: 35th SW road repairs continuing into Friday

Our photo from early this morning looks south toward where the pavement is torn up across both lanes of northbound 35th SW just north of Alaska, as WSB readers first started pointing out during Wednesday’s afternoon/evening commute, when encountering the resulting bottleneck without warning. After publishing an item about it last night, we contacted SDOT this morning to ask about it, as promised, and to find out how long the work will last. The reply, from SDOT spokesperson Sue Romero:

There was a lapse in timing of communicating on this specific project, therefore the work began without notification. In response to complaints from the public about the street, our crews are removing and replacing some concrete panels on 35th between SW Snoqualmie and SW Alaska. The work should be completed tomorrow and all lanes open by Friday afternoon.

So be forewarned, the lane closures will be continuing for the pm commute today – that caused some backup off the westbound bridge yesterday, coupled with a stalled vehicle by the last curve.

ChannelingLewisBlack September 29, 2016 (11:14 am)

Sounds like a lot of double-speak – was it a public work crew or a private contractor that took it upon themselves to dig up the street? What does “lapse in timing of communicating” really mean? Did someone do something they weren’t supposed to do, or did we just not communicate this out? Is it really ok to just dig up a street, take out two lanes of traffic and say “oops, my bad” ??

Peter September 29, 2016 (2:54 pm)

It just has to be some kind of malfeasance, huh? You know, engineers and workers don’t just snap their fingers and the work is done instantaneously. Having the lanes closed for a few days is necessary for doing road repairs, that’s just a physical fact. And what is your source of information that someone “took it upon themselves to dig up the street?”

AmandaKH September 29, 2016 (11:29 am)

SDOT just can’t win can they? That part of the street is a disaster and everyone yells at SDOT to fix it. SDOT fixes it in a remarkably short amount of time and they get yelled at because they didn’t notify anyone first.

In the grand scheme of things, 3 days to fix pavement is fast. The sky is Not falling and this will be just a memory as you are driving on that lovely fix soon.

Simon September 29, 2016 (12:02 pm)

That spot was in dire need of repair. People need to take a deep breath and relax. Roadwork that gets in the way for, at most, a few minutes of your commute. Or a flat caused by the non-repaired road possibly adding hours? Not a hard choice.

bolo September 29, 2016 (3:23 pm)

Glad they’re finally fixing that section as it was getting difficult to navigate on the bike with cars zooming by on the left and buses to the the right. Felt like I was going to get bounced into one or the other.