FOLLOWUP: Why part of Avalon was re-repaved Saturday, without wider warning

Our photo is from Saturday evening, as crews were wrapping up a day of repaving a section of SW Avalon Way just north of SW Genesee, work that reduced lanes and backed up traffic for much of the day. As we noted here after happening onto the work Saturday morning, despite Avalon’s status as a busy arterial – and despite the complication of SW Genesee’s concurrent closure west of Delridge – there was no public traffic alert about it. As promised, we followed up Monday with SDOT. No alert was required, explained spokesperson Mariam Ali today. For starters, it was not an SDOT project – it was a private project, road restoration that was required because nearby private development had cut into the repaved road: “Since Avalon Way had recently been paved, the contractor was required to restore a large area. This follows our Right-of-Way Opening and Restoration Rules which outlines the allowable exceptions for cutting into new pavement and establishes restoration requirements.” As for advance notice – the contractor provided that only to “residents and businesses within the project area,” Ali said, which is all that’s required, even when a street is used by many who don’t live or work in “the project area.” (The Genesee closure was also a private restoration project, but we found out about that in advance because Metro issued a reroute alert.)

Al King August 17, 2021 (4:36 pm)

SHOCKED!!!!!!!!!!!! Have seen, and bumped over MANY contractor “repairs” to roads they’ve cut into. Had NO idea there is a repair requirement. SDOT is clearly “selective” on their monitoring of “fixes”. Although, seeing their high bridge efforts guess i’m not surprised.

Matt P August 17, 2021 (8:47 pm)

I’m shocked at how poorly they are allowed to repair the road in Seattle. Fauntelroy is a complete mess and there are already sections of Delridge that had the expensive heavy duty concrete put down for buses that have been torn up and “patched”. Contractors should be required to repair the road exactly as it was before they tore it up.

MRS SHAW August 17, 2021 (5:03 pm)

Methinks that SDOT needs to revise its notification policies when a private party road closure impacts a minor or major arterial roadway for more than 30 minutes in one day. Widespread notification should be required, not just adjacent homes and businesses. That should be obvious….

My two cents … August 17, 2021 (5:49 pm)

It would nice, but I would be concerned with the amount of lead time needed to determine the date for work and then back it out to provide adequate notice for mailing and such. My wish would be that these private companies doing the work are held accountable for the conditions of the road six months, one year later. Before the city came in and did work on Avalon, it was a pretty bumpy road with all of the cutting cover work done over the past few years.

Chemist August 17, 2021 (7:29 pm)

It is long-past time for SDOT to have a public-facing database of registered/legitimate “no parking for project X” A frames, which I’d presume were part of this paving project’s notice.