Five months after voters passed Sound Transit 3 – a $54 billion package including a promise of light rail to West Seattle by 2030 – agency leaders declared today that they are “pushing the ‘go’ button” on that and other parts of the system expansion. We went downtown this afternoon for a media briefing preceding the Sound Transit board‘s afternoon meeting at which the draft System Expansion Implementation Plan was officially unveiled.

The speakers in our video of the 21-minute briefing were, in order, ST board chair Dave Somers (Snohomish County Executive), CEO Peter Rogoff, and board vice chairs Marilyn Strickland (Tacoma Mayor) and John Marchione (Redmond Mayor).

Though much of what they said involved generalities about the overall plan, we did get some specifics, particularly as they discussed the importance of “collaboration” with the jurisdictions in which they’ll be building. So, we asked, what kind of collaboration is required with/in the city of Seattle? Rogoff offered one example: A single environmental review for West Seattle to Ballard – even though the two segments will not be completed together; Ballard has a five-years-longer timetable (and will require a new tunnel through downtown). Toward that end, ST has already issued a Request For Qualifications for a key role in the West Seattle to Ballard planning – described in the news release accompanying the briefing as “a consultant (who) later this year will support kicking off planning for light rail between West Seattle, Downtown Seattle, and Ballard.” That solicitation is summarized here; bids are due May 17th.

Overall, ST3 will quintuple the size of the transit network, and Rogoff said they are figuring out everything they can do to facilitate and accelerate it – such as co-locating project teams who might otherwise have been spread out between multiple buildings.

Back on Monday night, we reported that SDOT had suddenly announced it was starting outreach for paving projects on SW Roxbury and SW Avalon that could start “as early as 2019.” We promised a followup, after sending some questions back to the SDOT spokesperson Dan Anderson, who sent the announcement, and here’s what we’ve found out: First, we asked why Roxbury and Avalon (with a few blocks of 35th SW immediately south) were next up, as opposed to, say, 35th and/or Delridge.

The factors SDOT considers when prioritizing paving are:

*street condition

*cost and cost effectiveness of treatment (weighing preservation opportunities against street reconstruction)

*traffic volume (including transit, freight, pedestrian and bicycle)

*grants and other leveraged funding opportunities

*utility coordination and grouping locations for efficiency

*citizen complaints and claims

*equity and geographic balance across the city

A focus of the Move Seattle Levy paving plan is transit. SW Avalon Way is a critical link for high-capacity transit to SW Spokane St and the West Seattle Bridge ramps. On SW Avalon Way, we’re considering reconstructing the portion of the street where the buses operate and resurfacing the remainder, which sees mainly light vehicle traffic. That makes the project attractive from a cost effectiveness standpoint. SW Roxbury St is a busy east-west link for residents in the south part of West Seattle. It is also a critical part of the Westwood Village transit hub routing.

We also asked specifically about the condition of the road in the two areas now planned for repaving “as early as 2019”:

SW Roxbury St is in very poor condition and it ranks at the bottom of major arterials in West Seattle along with 35th Ave SW and Delridge Way SW. SW Avalon Way’s condition is poor, but the rehabilitation is very attractive from a benefit/cost standpoint. With the projects we’re launching now, we’re working to improve SW Roxbury St, SW Avalon Way, and the highest-traffic segment of 35th Ave SW.

A key principal of pavement management is applying the right treatment at the right time, and taking advantage of opportunities to preserve existing pavements, which costs far less (4-7x), rather than allowing streets to deteriorate to a condition level where they need to be reconstructed.

Our Move Seattle Levy paving plan is a balance of preservation, where we extend the life of existing streets with overlays, seals, or panel replacements, and reconstruction of critical corridors. A good example can be seen in SDOT’s 2017 paving plan. We’ll be reconstructing the north end of 3rd Ave downtown in concrete to support the heavy bus traffic there. Meanwhile, on 4th Ave S between S Spokane St and Royal Brougham Way S, we’ll extend the life of the existing pavement structure by removing the old layers of asphalt and resurfacing with new asphalt.

With a long backlog of needs and limited funds, we have to make difficult choices about which streets get paved. We understand that some might feel that 35th Ave SW, Delridge Way SW, or another street should be paved before SW Avalon Way or SW Roxbury St. Those of us who work daily on paving wish there was more funding for paving and wish we could start work tomorrow on every street with a paving need. A large city like Seattle has a lot of competing priorities for limited funding.

Roxbury was originally projected for 2021. So it might be moved up two years. We asked what factors/conditions will determine if it does get moved up.

We have a 9-year paving budget and project list that corresponds to the Levy to Move Seattle funding period. Individual project costs are estimated up-front based on planning-level details and won’t be truly known until contracts are bid and the projects are closed after construction ends. Major projects are bid on and built by private contractors under City oversight. A significant variable in how many projects we can build and when is what contractors will bid. If bids are favorable, we may be able to do more. If not, less. Being a 9-year timeframe, there’s more uncertainty in out years than this year about how much construction costs will fluctuate. There are also unknowns in any major construction project that add to budget after groundbreaking.

Depending on these factors, we may have the right amount of budget for 2019 to pave SW Roxbury St. If not, it would be paved later than 2019.

This project, being a full reconstruction of the street in concrete, will be more expensive and complex than a partial asphalt grind and overlay project like SW Avalon Way. That’s why we’re saying SW Roxbury St is pending funding availability and we’re not for SW Avalon Way.

While we’re talking money – we asked about the cost of these projects. Anderson said Roxbury is estimated at $13.1 million, Avalon at $7.1 million, and the three blocks of 35th south of it at $4.8 million.

So, we asked, what about Delridge? Is any repaving scheduled for the north section (the south half was repaved back in 2013), especially relating to the Route 120 conversion to RapidRide in 2020?

We recognize there are paving needs on Delridge Way SW and are conducting a pavement assessment this summer. We’ll use the report and preferred RapidRide concept to identity paving priorities along the street that are also financially feasible.

That was it for our Q/A, for now. As mentioned in our first report, SDOT says it’ll have community meetings about both the Roxbury and Avalon projects in the next month or so. In the meantime, there’s an online survey about Avalon, here, and one promised soon for Roxbury.