FOLLOWUP: What’s next for SDOT’s Arbor Heights sidewalk project

| Arbor Heights | Transportation | West Seattle news

(SDOT photo)

SDOT‘s Arbor Heights sidewalk project has veered off its original schedule, as neighbors are well aware. Brand-new info is just in regarding what SDOT says will happen next:

The water shut off by Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) has been postponed from last week to next Monday, August 6. Water will be shut off from 9 AM – 6 PM. Impacted areas include: 35th Ave SW and 36th Ave SW (between SW 100th and SW 104th St) and SW 102nd St (between 35th Ave SW and 36th Ave SW). SPU notified impacted households.

Due to delay and shortage of concrete, we are slightly behind on schedule – our crews are finishing pouring concrete for the curbs between SW 100th St and SW 102nd St today (all curbs are complete after today).

Next Monday, we will pour concrete on all of the driveways – come Tuesday, residents will be able to park on their driveways again.

We will also be paving asphalt on the roadway against the curb (where the gravel used to be).

35th Ave SW will remain open this weekend.

We are scheduled to pour concrete for all sidewalks on Wednesday, August 15.

The main goal of the project is to add sidewalks to the west side of 35th SW from SW 100th to SW 106th.

Kram August 3, 2018 (1:23 pm)

Where can I find info on future sidewalk projects? Slightly surprised they don’t take it down to Marine View given the proximity to schools. Lots of people including kids walk on the street till Marine View because the ‘sidewalk’ is narrow. Its also on the east side (south of 106th) and these new sidewalks are on the west side. Weird.

WSB August 3, 2018 (1:33 pm)

https://www.seattle.gov/transportation/projects-and-programs/programs/pedestrian-program/sidewalk-development-program

anonyme August 3, 2018 (1:40 pm)

I do not consider an extension from 2 weeks to 7 weeks as “slightly behind”. I also have very good reason to believe (as in first hand knowledge) that the work will not be complete until Labor Day. I was told by a worker on Wednesday that they
do not consider the bulbs, ramps, and corner sidewalk extensions as part of the
“sidewalk” construction. You cannot imagine the nightmare of living on a staging corner during all this. Workers, some on motorcycles, arrive at 5:45 am, and begin work at 6am – not 7 as stated. Excavators start at 7 and are still running at 9:15 pm. The noise and dust are unbelievable. SDOT cares only about the traffic and not the impact on homeowners. I was very tolerant at first, but this has gone far beyond any definition of what is reasonable.I find it hard to believe that a project of this magnitude would not have had a contract with a concrete supplier that guaranteed x amount of concrete within a given time period. It’s also a good thing that the water info is being posted here, because NONE OF THE NEIGHBORS WERE NOTIFIED OF THE SHUTOFF!!!!!!! I was told by the construction supervisor that SPU was required to give 3 business days notice of a water shut-off. Communication on this project has been deficient and deceptive. They don’t give a crap about us homeowners — until the time comes to raise our property taxes to pay for the sidewalks.

T August 3, 2018 (5:09 pm)

That sucks anon. I know it’s no consolation but I’ve had similar experiences.

anonyme August 3, 2018 (6:10 pm)

There’s more. The above revised schedule was provided to the WSB just a few hours ago, presumably by Ching Chan, the Communications Lead for this project. I just received an email from Ms. Chan saying “Our team is trying their best to meet our goal of completing the project by LABOR DAY WEEKEND” (caps mine).In other words Ms. Chan, you are a disseminator (trying to be polite), playing games with semantics and floating dates with no facts attached to them, assuming we are too stupid to know the difference. The homeowners living in the midst of this nightmare were deliberately fed false information because Ms. Chan and the project managers knew full well that once the project was in full swing there would be nothing we could do about it. Well, think again. At the very least I can ‘out’ your deceptive public info campaign. What I will not do is swallow spoonful after spoonful of BS and say “yummy”.

Oh, one correction, to be fair. A few neighbors did receive water shutoff notices after all. I did not.

WSB August 3, 2018 (6:34 pm)

No, I received the update from LeAnne Nelson in the SDOT communications office, who in turn has been talking with the project team. The concrete situation has affected other projects.

MJ August 3, 2018 (10:35 pm)

I agree a SDoT is an inefficient operation. It is typical that the abutting property owner is responsible to pay for sidewalks! Thus when the City taxpayers are paying the bill and then complaining seems a bit out of order, unless this is being paid for by a local LID.

Sorry, comment time is over.