(WSB photo: City crew on 35th near Webster this past March)

Bit by bit, 35th SW seems to be moving closer to earlier repaving. You’ll recall that originally, SDOT’s plan had it penciled in for 2023. Then came news in April that the Avalon repaving project would include three bus-battered blocks of 35th, between Avalon and Alaska. After that, we learned earlier this month that some spot repaving is planned on south 35th SW. Today, Councilmember Lisa Herbold‘s weekly update includes word that the rest of the south section of 35th SW might be moved up to 2019 – and includes word of exactly which sections will be involved in the spot repaving:

You may recall that, in April, I sent SDOT Director Kubly a letter requesting that SDOT expedite the schedule for re-paving 35th Avenue SW, currently not planned until 2023 in SDOT’s 2016-2024 pavement plan.

This week I received a reply from SDOT. In response to hearing not only from me, but many of you as well, they have indicated they have scheduled the rebuild of 35th from Alaska to Avalon for 2019 (in conjunction with Avalon re-paving project). This segment of 35th carries the highest bus traffic. They also indicated they are considering moving forward, from 2023 to 2019, the re-paving work on the Roxbury to Morgan segment of 35th.

In addition, they are planning on spot repairs in 2017 for the northbound travel lanes from Cloverdale to Thistle, Holden to Austin, and Othello to Webster.

After sending the letter, I further asked about a question several constituents have asked about whether the lane reduction from Roxbury to Holly had resulted in a differential weight distribution than the road was originally designed for, thus possibly leading to greater degradation of the road.

SDOT replied that this has been an issue with some lane reductions in Seattle, but they didn’t believe it was much of a factor on 35th, except perhaps in some places. They noted that southbound, the lane reduction had shifted traffic onto concrete, which is structurally more robust. Northbound, there may be some accelerated deterioration in spots that they proposed to mitigate with spot repairs in 2017, as noted above.

I appreciate SDOT’s responsiveness to the requests of my office as well as District 1 constituents in this matter.

Her update also includes the entire text of SDOT’s letter to her, which includes some numbers on the repaving costs, plus a warning that moving up 35th would “require us to eliminate other Move Seattle [levy] paving projects throughout the City.” You can read it on her website.

P.S. As we reported June 19th, 35th SW Phase 2 is still on the drawing board, with Phase 1 analysis due to go public in a few weeks.