FOLLOWUP: West Marginal Way road repair planned for multiple weekends

As we noted on Twitter last night and in today’s morning traffic roundup, we learned during last night’s SDOT meeting on West Marginal Way (full meeting report soon) that the road is scheduled for pavement repair this weekend and beyond. We just obtained details:

Starting this weekend and lasting up to three weekends, our crews will be repairing pavement around these abandoned railroad tracks, about 1 mile south of the Chelan 5-way intersection.

(SDOT photo)

Starting this weekend, Saturday, February 20 and Sunday, February 21 from approximately 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. our crews will be repairing pavement at abandoned railroad tracks on West Marginal Way. This work may continue the two following weekends, February 27-28, and March 6-7. This work is weather-dependent.

The railroad tracks are located about 1 mile south of the Chelan 5-way intersection, just south of the intersection with SW Idaho St.

West Marginal Way will be reduced to a single lane in each direction at the project site. Traffic management will be in place for traffic to start merging as it approaches the work area. Please expect delays as we merge traffic to complete this work, as well as noise and minor vibrations.

During last night’s meeting, the initial mention of this emerged when an attendee asked if those unused tracks could be removed. SDOT’s Sara Zora said no, because they belong to “an adjacent property owner” who wants to keep them.

P.S. Reminder that this weekend also will see lane closures on the northbound 1st Avenue South Bridge 6 am-noon both days.

17 Replies to "FOLLOWUP: West Marginal Way road repair planned for multiple weekends"

  • DC February 19, 2021 (11:32 am)

    Cool….but this section has needed fixing literally for years. It’s not just now that this has fallen into disrepair. How’d this happen anyway? Is this the result of some weird easement from 80 years ago? Can the city pull back ownership or require private owners to shell out the upkeep?

  • WSREZ February 19, 2021 (11:57 am)

    SDOT really doesn’t want us to leave our island, huh.

  • bolo February 19, 2021 (12:06 pm)

    Abandoned railroad tracks yet adjacent property owner wants to keep them? And SDOT (taxpayer-funded) is doing the repairs?

  • Mike February 19, 2021 (12:33 pm)

    So glad to see repairs on the railroad track – it has been a menace for many years.  If the adjacent property owner wants to keep the track in place, he/she should pay for the maintenance.

  • Kyle February 19, 2021 (12:53 pm)

    Curious who the owner is that wants to keep them in place. They aren’t even connected on either side anymore, and I’m assuming would cause considerable expense to make operational. Just take them out. Also, does this adjacent owner actually own the tracks? If they don’t why do they get more say than the rest of the public?

    • NotInMyBackyard February 19, 2021 (3:19 pm)

      Visko Enterprises, Inc.The parcel info and tax information link to the owner below. The nerve of someone who doesn’t live in West Seattle telling us what to do with our roads. BTW, this is all publicly available information that took less that 10 minutes to find.UBI number601299145CategoryREGCompany statusActiveState Of IncorporationWAFilling Date7th February 1991Expiration Date28th February 2017Inactive Date

      Registered Agent

      Agent NameJOHN P PLANCICH
      Agent Address3830 NE 195TH Street
      Agent CitySEATTLE
      Agent StateWA
      Agent ZIP98155

      Governing Persons

      PLANCICH , JOHN PPresident
      3830 NE 195TH ST SEATTLE , WA 981552603
      PLANCICH , ALMA
      Secretary
      3830 NE 195TH ST SEATTLE , WA 981552603

  • Reality Chick February 19, 2021 (1:23 pm)

    That guided meditation at the start of last night’s WMW meeting is starting to make a bit more sense. 

  • Peter February 19, 2021 (3:45 pm)

    You can’t just take out railroad tracks, even it they’re not connected to anything, it’s a long federal process. 

    • Auntie February 19, 2021 (6:09 pm)

      Could you please cite your reference? Thank you.

      • psps February 20, 2021 (12:34 am)

        See 49 C.F.R.  § 1152 (2011) – there are rights-of-way and easements involved. 

  • Danimal February 19, 2021 (5:37 pm)

    It is a long process to remove tracks from the federal railroad network, but not if you’re a private owner of a siding. The owner in this case can keep the tracks if he/she wants to. Or they could pull them up without any fuss. If the switch has been removed from the BNSF connection, then abandonment of that switch has been accomplished, and it was removed. However if the private siding owner wants to reconnect to the rail network, in general, they’ll usually be required to foot the bill to reinstall a switch unless there’s some legal agreement otherwise. But whatever the case, they can do whatever they please with the tracks. There may be a complicated legal arrangement involving easements preventing the owner from having to foot the bill for grade crossing road maintenance.

  • valvashon February 20, 2021 (3:49 pm)

    Ugh.  I was just through there.  They have removed the old crappy asphalt and put new crappy asphalt in it’s place.  I give this repair less than a year.

    • WSB February 20, 2021 (4:17 pm)

      They’re also working tomorrow and next weekend, possibly also the weekend after that, so perhaps this is just step one.

  • namercury February 20, 2021 (6:31 pm)

    By now we should understand the unique SDOT logic.  Removal of the rough spot on W Marginal Way will enable drivers to drive faster.  Therefore, it is obvious the speed limit should be reduced to 25mph!  

  • keven ruf February 21, 2021 (2:08 pm)

    Those tracks are a menace. 

  • bill February 21, 2021 (8:35 pm)

    I drove over the tracks today. The repaired pavement is very nice. But I do not understand why the tracks remain in the street, why the owner would want to retain them. Not only are the tracks not connected to the rail line on the east side, the tracks terminate at the west edge of the pavement. There is no sign of tracks on the property to the west. The tracks are long gone.

Sorry, comment time is over.