MORE ROAD WORK: Months of detours ahead for 26th SW repaving south of Westwood Village

| Transportation | West Seattle news | West Seattle traffic alerts | Westwood

Another road-work alert for the week ahead. This is part of the preparations for converting Metro Route 120 to the RapidRide H Line next year, but it’s not part of the project on Delridge Way itself – that one is being done by a city-hired contractor, and this involves a county-hired contractor. After a reader tip that 26th SW work was beginning, we asked Metro for info, and here it is – repaving 26th SW south of Westwood Village, where buses are blamed for myriad paving woes:

Metro’s contractors, Walsh Construction, have already begun upgrades for RapidRide H Line at 25th Avenue SW and SW Barton Street (bus stop improvements) and at the intersection of 15th Avenue SW and SW Roxbury Street (road and pedestrian improvements) in the Westwood Village area. Starting as early as Wednesday, Aug. 4, Walsh will begin demolishing road panels in the northbound lanes of 26th Avenue SW between SW Barton Street and SW Roxbury Street.

This will start several months of work on 26th Avenue SW. The work will occur in phases moving from northbound to southbound over the remainder of the year. Paving of 26th Avenue SW has long been a request from community and Metro and the Seattle Department of Transportation are excited to bring this improvement as part of RapidRide H Line. Improving the condition of the road will benefit all users and strengthen the roadway for future frequent future RapidRide H Line service.

As early as Aug. 4, northbound drivers will be detoured off of 26th Avenue SW between SW Roxbury Street and SW Barton Street. The turn from SW Cambridge Street to 26th Avenue SW also will be closed during work. The northbound closure is expected to last two to three months. Once the northbound demolition and repaving are complete, crews will move to work on the southbound lanes, reopening northbound traffic on the improved northbound lanes and detouring southbound drivers. Transit will also be rerouted off of 26th Avenue SW to 35th Avenue SW and the northbound bus stop located at the intersection of 26th Avenue SW and SW Barton Street will also be temporarily relocated to SW Barton Street.

Metro notes, “Typical work hours are Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with some nighttime and weekend work.”

Kimbee July 30, 2021 (5:29 pm)

Hi, did SDOT make a detour map available? Can’t seem to find one online. Thanks!

WSB July 30, 2021 (6:52 pm)

Unfortunately the King County updates are so far nowhere near as thorough as the SDOT ones – no maps, nor a web link for the entire update – this came in late today but next week I’m asking that the county emulate the city updates in that manner. So in summary, no detour map (yet) that I know of. Will look around further and add if I find one…

heyalki July 30, 2021 (8:35 pm)

Cool! Only took like what? A decade?…to get to that? Keep on not filling potholes, adding bumps that don’t slow anyone down, and putting in bs stuff for the buses then canceling the bus routes tho, that is soooooo helpful. Or maybe do more of this actual helpful stuff idk…

1994 July 30, 2021 (10:15 pm)

Dear Walsh Construction, I sure hope Metro & SDOT are paying top dollar for a top notch job that won’t need repairs for many years to come. Those buses cause a LOT of road damage.

AMD July 31, 2021 (10:13 am)

Re-doing 26th is great, but Barton REALLY needs some help where the buses lay over.

Marty2 July 31, 2021 (11:42 am)

I noticed they recently paved the bus layover area with asphalt, not much of a curb left. It will be interesting to see how that area drains when it starts raining again.
Cewood August 1, 2021 (1:20 pm)

Truly, how can Metro and SDOT not see how awful SW Barton is? And with the 120 going to a heavier bus, streets will continue to be a mess.

anonyme July 31, 2021 (11:59 am)

Making access to Arbor Heights via public transportation even more difficult, if that’s possible. BTW, the disappearance of the Roxhill bog/pond occurred simultaneously with the construction of the Barton layover.

Diggerido July 31, 2021 (4:27 pm)

What the HELL about the road damage on Barton?? 26th is somewhat beaten up, but Barton west of 26th is absolute hell.

DRW August 1, 2021 (12:16 pm)

Hopefully they will put in those blinky lights at the crosswalk. The buses totally block the view of the crosswalk if your heading east on Barton. What a cluster.

Jim August 2, 2021 (1:00 pm)

I feel Roxbury street between 18th and 24th is in worse shape also.

WestSeaRider August 3, 2021 (6:35 am)

Thisthe wrong time to add more construction congestion on one of the West Seattle Bridge detour routes. This project will reduce road capacity in an area critically overloaded with detour Traffic. Like the horrifically planned Deliridge project during the bridge detour, it’s another example of Inflexible construction planning during a historically bad detour realities. Unbelievable.

momosmom August 3, 2021 (8:48 am)

I agree. On another note is they should open Roxbury to 2 lanes where they put it down to only 1 going east bound from 6am – 9am and then from 3pm – 6pm going west bound Monday thru Friday. But we all know that’ll never happen.

Cardinal August 3, 2021 (8:17 pm)

I live at Westwood Village, and all the Delridge stops nearby me are already closed due to road construction. I was just at the Barton stop at 3:40 this morning trying to catch my bus to go to work, the last bus of the night, and the driver drove right past me and kept going! I’m more than 5 miles from my job, and had to call in to work, because there is absolutely no notification at this stop of it being closed or where the next stop available to pick up I’d at! Where am I supposed to go, if every stop up to Roxbury is closed over here?!!!

26thaveguy August 7, 2021 (1:23 am)

I don’t see why SDOT can’t loop the 120 bus around 35th. It’d help mitigate the extremely heavy traffic on 26th, a far narrower road, and would save the city money on new shelters when the H line gets going. I can’t imagine a reroute being so costly that it outweighs the costs of road work, crashes, and congestion.

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