DELRIDGE PROJECT: This week’s repaving-and-more plan

| Delridge | West Seattle news | West Seattle traffic alerts

(SDOT photo, Delridge/Orchard)

As the weekend comes to a close, it’s time to look ahead to where the Delridge Way repaving-and-more project will be focused this week. From SDOT, the key sites:

*Intersection upgrades at SW Orchard St and Delridge Way SW to continue for several weeks. Travel will be reduced to one lane in each direction on both Delridge Way SW and SW Orchard St, and a uniformed police officer will be present to direct traffic through the area.

*Roadway upgrades on SW Hudson St between Delridge Way SW and 25th Ave SW continue

*Intersection upgrades at SW Kenyon St scheduled to resume next week and will last approximately one week. A uniformed police officer will be stationed at the intersection to help direct traffic.

*Roadway upgrades at 21st Ave SW and Delridge Way SW continue. Upcoming work includes rebuilding the intersection, which will include a full closure of 21st Ave SW.

And here’s a week-in-advance warning of the northernmost section of repaving:

*Beginning as early as May 3, we will begin upgrading the roadway between the West Seattle Bridge and SW Dakota St via mill and overlay, which is less noisy than traditional demolition and paving

The full work plan for the week ahead is here.

Nick April 25, 2021 (7:35 pm)

“ Travel will be reduced to one lean in each direction”Lol. Ironic typo aside, isn’t most of the new Delridge corridor a single lane in each direction?

WSB April 25, 2021 (7:37 pm)

Sorry – that was as sent but no excuse for me not fixing a misspelling. Fixed now.
Auntie April 25, 2021 (7:55 pm)

I think they are referring to the temporary elimination of the left turn lanes at Delridge & Orchard. The officers have been doing a good job of conducting the traffic flow and letting left-turners move along so they aren’t holding up the whole line of traffic.

Johnny April 25, 2021 (8:02 pm)

Any word/idea when Yancy reopens?

WSB April 25, 2021 (8:35 pm)

We included that in Friday morning’s road-work update. “A few more weeks.”

Dominick April 25, 2021 (10:16 pm)

Is it worth getting a so-called “rapid line” on the 120 route? Apparently a rapid line requires the entire road to be dug up to great depths and for a bunch of dudes to smoke cigarettes and watch another dude control traffic. I thought data showed rapid lines were an expensive mistake. This one seems to be. We are what feels like almost a year in, and driving on delridge is like going off-road except for the constant waiting for forever for oncoming traffic to go through when it’s down to one lane.

Auntie April 26, 2021 (10:50 am)

I agree! How rapid will it be when Delridge is just stop-and-go during rush hour once the West Seattle Bridge reopens. Most of Delridge will still be just one lane, few left turn lanes (further exascerbating the backup) and very few stretches of Bus Only lanes. The buses can only go as fast as the rest of the traffic. So after all this work, how will it be any different??
- Foop April 26, 2021 (12:58 pm)
  
  From your other remarks across several posts here you seem to have an axe to grind in favor or single occupancy vehicles. Let me explain what the delridge project does.It gives us more dedicated bus lanes and while not as effective as say, a light rail, its slated to improve the already solid travel times of busses by something like 17%. In addition to adding more frequent routes and newer, greener busses.This project also repaves what was a rough stretch of road which people complained about frequently, and yeah its a rough ride now, but those paved sections are butter… It also includes several pedestrian improvements including clearer cross walk accessibility improvements at intersections and transit stops. More logging for crossing delridge and beg buttons in more places. It also includes more supported southbound bike lanes (south on delridge is mostly uphill) Overall it improves access to transit, pedestrian safety, and cycling safety, prioritizing sustainable and scalable forms of transit and making movement more accessible to all, not just cars, while reducing speeds and making driving safer in general as well.
  - Barton April 26, 2021 (5:03 pm)
    
    I have the same question. If there is not a dedicated bus lane down Delridge how expeditious will a Rapid Ride be in a single lane clogged with cars. And I’m a former Rapid Ride C devotee who has been waiting for H and now sees any benefit slipping away. No axe to grind here. And no way would I ever rely on SDOT projections (or slated timing improvements).
    - D-Ridge April 26, 2021 (6:59 pm)
      
      They did add bus only lanes; they extended the bus only lane near Youngstown by three blocks in the morning, and added one from the bridge to the play fields going south. They also added bypass lanes at Sylvan, and priority signaling for buses. No car lanes have been reduced whatsoever, only bike lanes have been removed.
    - Barton April 27, 2021 (7:43 am)
      
      Thx D-Ridge – I’m glad they extended bus only but have a difficult time visualizing how that helps significantly when there will still need to be multiple instances of re-merging into one clogged lane. I’ll spend more time looking at the info. I’m hopeful that H will be rapid.
    - D-Ridge April 27, 2021 (8:55 am)
      
      Check out the channelization plan on SDOT’s site; there will only be one spot (at 23rd Ave SW southbound) where buses will need to merge from two lanes to one. In this case, they’ll be provided with priority signalization that will allow them to bypass traffic at the stop light. Otherwise buses will only go from one general traffic lane to two lanes, one being bus only.https://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/SDOT/TransitProgram/RapidRide/RapidRide%20H/Delridge_RR_roll_plot_Full_Project_Chann_low(1).pdf
    - Foop April 27, 2021 (8:55 am)
      
      Yes we lost some northbound bike lanes but are getting more southbound which is still a net positive imo, as someone who frequently hated being forces to merge into traffic going up a hill at Kenyon / Delridge. @Barton to be clear the increase in time comes from bus frequency increases and the light timings. They estimated some % I cant recall if it was 13 % or more? But it’s around there, which I think is reasonable given the bypasses and more dedicated bus lanes. Delridge actually doesn’t get too clogged up except near Andover (in non-construction times) where there is the dedicated bus section, so long as cars don’t illegally use that bus lane for their bridge transit.The primary lane reduction here is the loss of street parking in some places and the removal of the center lane that people use to recklessly pass law abiding traffic. The overall design is meant to slow / standardize traffic. Controlled traffic gets you to your destination faster than higher speed limits and erratic patterns from outliers. The more people can give up driving the faster we can all move in the long run. Here’s to hoping we get more bike infra with the increase of e-bikes, and more transit access to other parts of the city. I also hope we get the 22 back and it really needs to run more than once an hour @_@
    - Barton April 27, 2021 (5:15 pm)
      
      Thank you D-Ridge and Foop – That’s encouraging.

Bah April 26, 2021 (10:57 am)

I’m a big fan of how Delridge’s lights stay green for ten seconds then turn red to allow cross traffic from the closed streets, causing traffic to back up north/southbound. Stellar planning DOT

WSB April 26, 2021 (11:09 am)

If a particular signal has timing trouble, please report it to SDOT. There are numerous ways to do that, including 206-684-ROAD, 684-Road@seattle.gov, and/or tag them on Twitter @seattledot – TR

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