Also this weekend: 1st/Olson work continues. Here’s what the project is about

(Photos courtesy SDOT)

Before we move on from traffic to today’s other news – one more weekend alert: The 1st/Olson work at the east end of the SW Roxbury corridor continues. This project began without a standalone announcement and we’ve been asked what it’s going to accomplish, so we asked SDOT’s LeAnne Nelson, who explained:

The 1st/Olson location was prioritized for a Levy to Move Seattle major maintenance rebuild, to enhance reliability and function where underground wiring/materials had degraded. The failing existing conduit system had caused repeated maintenance issues.

The 4-intense-weekends-effort was planned to reduce traffic impacts during replacement of underground wiring and bonding across about 70 feet of travel lanes. Crews finish installing the new underground infrastructure this weekend, followed by paving. The new conduit connects to our Traffic Operations Center and Intelligent Transportation System, which helps enhance safety and mobility remotely.

There is an additional phase of the effort, above ground, expected to be complete by the end of September. It includes new LED traffic signals and new signal support poles—better aligned with the current roadway configuration for optimal visibility.

Interesting side note, the team had to make minor adjustments to the planned conduit route, after discovery of an abandoned streetcar rail during excavation. (Photo above)

Vanessa August 22, 2018 (10:08 am)

I was hoping they were creating safe pedestrian access between South Park and West Seattle.

Collin August 23, 2018 (9:06 am)

I’d love to see this too Vanessa! I know it was proposed last year as one of the community-voiced projects that we could “vote” on to get the $$ for improvements, but this one didn’t make the cut :/.

HS August 22, 2018 (10:38 am)

Street car rail… I still wish they were in use here.

HM August 22, 2018 (11:28 am)

I was hoping they’d be re-configuring the intersection to make it safer. But maybe this will at least help with that one pothole that keeps coming back in the west-bound lane.

Craig August 23, 2018 (10:17 am)

The streetcar rail find is interesting. If I’m reading the 1933 Seattle Railway map correctly, it Looks like the streetcar jogged north on 1st to Barton which can be seen if this image comes through in this post.