Don’t yet know why, but if you need to get to EB bridge, enter further east.
UPDATE: SDOT says “debris” are the reason for the closure.
2ND UPDATE: Per texter and live cam, open again.
West Seattle, Washington
02 Tuesday
Don’t yet know why, but if you need to get to EB bridge, enter further east.
UPDATE: SDOT says “debris” are the reason for the closure.
2ND UPDATE: Per texter and live cam, open again.
There was an earlier spinout near the “Welcome to West Seattle” sign that displaced the concrete barriers by several feet. SPD closed the EB entrance so the couple of SDOT trucks and workers could reposition the barriers safely.
That’s at least the second time in 24 hours, then, and it was my first guess in exchanges with texters. But SDOT described it in the subsequent online alert as “debris,” fwiw. At least on X. I was out of the house at the time and missed the initial dispatch.
The jersey barriers were badly out of place yesterday afternoon, right at that spot. Put a find it fix it in, but hoping sdot gets to it asap.
What will it take to get that stretch of road fixed. I feel like we’re running out of chances before a tragedy happens.
What exactly is there to fix? It’s just people traveling too fast with likely dead/near dead tires. For science I’ve tested this corner at numerous speeds in several vehicles with good tires – in everything from drizzles to torrential rain, and there’s no issue with this corner at all.
Same thing, for “science”… good tires, all wheel drive sports car, rain, in excess of the limit: not so much as a wiggle. It’s not speed. I drove by after this latest spin out and it was another RWD pickup. My suggestion is to record make/model of these spin outs, and if possible, tire condition. Anecdotally, the times I’ve seen these spin outs it’s RWD pickups with nothing in the back. I’d wager you can make this happen below t he limit with bald tires in the rain, RWD, no weight and tap the brakes or accelerator at the apex.
But drivers speed on roads all over Seattle. People travel with less-than-ideal tread all over Seattle. Other locations don’t see the rate of loss of control that this location does. Your science is only half done until it explains why speed and tires are impacted by this curve, but not the dozens of others all over the city. It’s likely a combination of road and human factors, one of which can be addressed to make things safer.
I was on the side of “it’s a driver problem”, but I’ve come around to feel that something could be done to increase traction here like grooved pavement. however, we’d need a representative that actually looks at data to determine where safety is lacking in our infrastructure rather than push projects that satisfy their own grievances…
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