Repaving – and peat removal – ahead for SW Barton between Westwood Village and Roxhill Park

| Transportation | West Seattle news | Westwood

Today’s city-circulated Land Use Information Bulletin brings word of a repaving project planned for SW Barton between 26th and 29th, to fix road damage blamed on buses. The bulletin specifically notes that a two-week comment period is now open regarding the determination that the project doesn’t need a full environmental-impact study; it has a “checklist,” from which we extracted this:

King County Metro buses on the RapidRide C route have a layover location on SW Barton Street between 26th Ave SW and 29th Ave SW in Seattle, WA. The layover location is within peat settlement prone and liquefaction prone environmentally critical areas (ECAs). Due to the heavy loads imposed by routine bus use over an inadequate roadbase, the roadway has experienced settling, resulting in dislocated concrete panels. To address this issue, SDOT proposes to repair the roadbed by removing existing peat deposits and filling the subgrade with lightweight cellular concrete, then installing new concrete panels on the roadway surface. An existing wastewater main is located below the roadway, within the area to be filled with stabilizing material. The wastewater main will be relocated to a position approximately one foot below and slightly north of its current location. This will move the pipe out of the area to be filled with concrete and align it with the post-construction road grade.

To support the project goals described above and meet City of Seattle construction standards, the project will also repair or improve the surrounding drainage infrastructure, curb lines, curb ramps, and sidewalks.

We contacted SDOT to find out more; they pointed us to this project page which says the work is expected to happen this fall. They also told us that official notification of nearby residents and businesses is expected to start with a mailer going out next week. Meantime, if you want to comment on the aforementioned environmental aspect, this notice explains how. There’s been a longrunning project aimed at saving the peat bog in adjacent Roxhill Park, so we’ll be looking into how/whether this might affect that, too.

DRW March 31, 2025 (12:41 pm)

And keep the existing bus stops at our Metro Village Hub clean.

Bbron March 31, 2025 (1:30 pm)

Cool. Those bumps a teeth chattering when riding. Love to see the call out to improve the drainage. Too often (and even at the newer shelters) you have to pick between standing in the rain or standing under the shelter and getting soaked by cars driving thru the puddles.

KT March 31, 2025 (3:27 pm)

I hope Metro Transit is paying.

WSB March 31, 2025 (3:39 pm)

The project page says funding (no amount cited so I have to follow up for that) is from Metro and SDOT.
cheezburger April 1, 2025 (8:59 am)

KT what about the thousands of cars that drive over this area every day? They are also contributing to the damage. Perhaps it should be tolled, because we all know that car driving is a state and city welfare activity.
- SRHNA April 1, 2025 (9:10 pm)
  
  If there not peat underneath the street, from a pavement design perspective, one loaded articulated Metro bus is roughly equivalent to over 7,000 cars and one standard loaded bus is equivalent to over 2,500 cars (these are based on equivalent standard axle loads [ESALs] I found on the web). But with peat it’s probably not the number of ESALs that are causing the problems. The ongoing problem is likely that the peat was not identified when the road was originally constructed. What tends to happen in areas like this is that as the road settles more pavement is added to raise the grade which adds load and increases the settlement. The thicker concrete pavement section at the bus stop likely does not help.
WSB_Enjoyer April 2, 2025 (9:07 pm)

What makes you think King County Metro gets to choose where they layover without SDOTs permission? They agreed on this location together and will pay for the fix together.

Fiz March 31, 2025 (4:29 pm)

Has the damaged peat bog in Roxhill Park recovered?

CoolBreeze March 31, 2025 (5:48 pm)

Odd that roadwork and peat removal impacting an already struggling ancient wetland bog and the headwaters of Longfellow Creek “doesn’t need a full environmental-impact study.”

Eric1 March 31, 2025 (6:23 pm)

LOL. So let me get this straight…. The layover location is within peat settlement prone and liquefaction prone environmentally critical areas (ECAs) and the solution is to dig up the peat and thus remove the environmentally critical area? How about KCMetro move the bus layover to an environmentally insensitive area and restore the critical area that the bus layover has apparently damaged? Or does that make too much sense?

bolo March 31, 2025 (8:15 pm)

Does not make too much sense.

Even if the layover zone was not at that location, as long as it is still part of the route the buses take, the pavement will still rapidly deteriorate because the heavy buses still constantly roll over it.

Your proposed solution (move the bus layover) would also necessitate rerouting the buses away from this area to keep them from degrading the roadway.
- A April 1, 2025 (3:46 pm)
  
  Not to mention that there is already a large and well used shopping center right there. There are already so many cars and delivery trucks using the same road that the busses are on. All that rerouting the busses would likely do is inconvenience the riders and put stress on a different near by road that is also built on top of a bog.
SRHNA April 1, 2025 (10:06 pm)

The use of ECA can be a little confusing. In this instance they are referring to a “geologic hazard area” (see link below) and not a wetland/habitat area. The peat they are talking about is under the pavement. The road, to my knowledge, was not widened to create the layover area and therefore did not damage a critical area (that was done when the road and sidewalk was originally constructed). https://www.seattle.gov/sdci/codes/codes-we-enforce-(a-z)/environmentally-critical-areas-(eca)-code

Cash March 31, 2025 (9:19 pm)

those square pavement sections are the problem. they eventually sink at different levels due to buses. hope they just do smooth pavement this time.

CoolBreeze March 31, 2025 (10:25 pm)

How very odd that removal of “existing peat deposits” (to make way for concrete fill) from an already struggling ancient wetland bog and the headwaters of Longfellow Creek somehow “doesn’t need a full environmental-impact study.”

Bbron April 1, 2025 (12:11 am)

Couldn’t write a more perfect comedy: people that don’t use the transit here complaining that it’ll harm the environment to fix the roadway while there’s a 24 acre parking lot just 20 feet away.

Bill April 1, 2025 (5:33 am)

Build a bridge instead and try to make it go back to as natural as possible?

Jeff April 1, 2025 (7:24 am)

On one hand, good idea. On the other, all of Westwood village is built on the bog so what’s a little more for the street.
A April 1, 2025 (3:39 pm)

While I don’t disagree that we should be looking for more restorative projects to the land, I think we can all agree that project is far larger in scope than what is being proposed. There are too many good and necessary questions that would need to be answered while an arterial road that two major bus lines use continues to crumble.

Sorry, comment time is over.