DETOUR ALERT: Pre-streetcar work starts soon on NB 1st Avenue South

If you take 1st Avenue South to get into downtown – take note of a long-term detour that could start as soon as the day after New Year’s. As announced by SDOT, they’re about to start utility work to get ready for Center City Connector streetcar consstruction. This means northbound 1st Ave. S. will be closed between S. Jackson St. and Yesler Way, January through May, for installation of a new water main. The work also will close westbound Jackson between 1st and 2nd. More details are on the streetcar project website, including a note that staging will start later this week.

Steve December 27, 2017 (9:17 am)

Is this a separate line or will it physically join the tracks of the two current lines?

WSB December 27, 2017 (9:43 am)

If you follow the link in the last line and scroll down, you’ll see the map showing that it will do the latter. That’s why they’re calling it the “Center City Connector.” – TR

JCW December 27, 2017 (11:18 am)

Has SDOT provided a primary bike route between this and the Columbia Street construction? Many of us biking from West Seattle come up the path at King Street and jog over to 2nd Ave, but these detours and lane closures make it much more challenging.

WSB December 27, 2017 (11:31 am)

I haven’t found one online but am asking.
WSB December 28, 2017 (4:23 pm)

Got a reply today from SDOT communicator Karen Westing:

Signage will detour (direct) people driving or biking on northbound 1st Ave S to either:
turn left onto westbound S Jackson St, where they can continue on Alaskan Way S and meet back with 1st Ave at Yesler Way
Or, they can travel east (turn right onto S Jackson St) and take a number of routes to join back with 1st Ave (this route will not be signed)
- JCW January 2, 2018 (7:36 am)
  
  Thanks!

rob December 28, 2017 (5:56 pm)

i just watch a tv show about the new bridge /HWY next to the hoover dam. Its a 4 lane bridge across a wide canyon. It was done in 2013. It took two years to build at a cost of 230 million. this is about a mile long bridge. So the city is only putting in a mile of rail track and a couple of new trolly cars at the cost of 175 million dollars. Somethings wrong with this picture.

AMD December 28, 2017 (7:45 pm)

Apples to oranges.

For starters you’re comparing 5000 feet of track to 1900 feet of bridge. Totally different projects. The work to relocate/update utility and other infrastructure in the area is going to be different because one’s in a major city’s downtown core and the other is in the middle of nowhere (relatively). The geology of the area and type of earth they’re dealing with digging into is completely different. The cost of living and thus what they pay workers on the project is going to be wildly different.

There’s no comparison between these two projects at all. That’s the problem with the picture.