You asked, so we asked: About the water at bottom of Admiral Way hill

| Safety | West Seattle news

(WSB photo from this afternoon – mostly dry now)

This long spell of dry weather has resurfaced a longrunning problem – water running down the Admiral Way hill toward the bridge. One week ago, Laura emailed us to ask about it:

I am puzzled by how and why the city is allowing so much water to flow across lower Admiral Way. I can see that there were blog posts about it several years ago, but over the last couple of weeks it has become much worse. If our temperatures drop, it will be a massive ice rink! Have you heard anything from the city about this?

As a result of that inquiry, we had asked SDOT about it even before it led to exactly that problem – an “ice rink” – on Wednesday morning. SDOT first redirected us to Seattle Public Utilities, whose spokesperson Travis Gershaneck initially responded:

This location appears to be a known area of surfacing groundwater. Surfacing groundwater is a natural condition in Seattle, and the City works to manage and mitigate impacts of these sites where possible. If icy or otherwise unsafe road conditions occur, the Seattle Department of Transportation is the lead agency and can be contacted at (206) 684-ROAD. For urgent drainage or flooding concerns, Seattle Public Utilities’ 24/7 Operations Response Center can be reached at (206) 386-1800. These operational lines are the best way to reach our hard-working crews and allow for the most timely response.

By then, Wednesday morning’s freezing fog had struck, and we asked SDOT how they’d responded. Spokesperson Mariam Ali replied:

Our crews are aware of the reported black ice on Admiral Way. A truck was dispatched to the area earlier today, and we will continue to monitor the location. A salt truck will be checking the corridor (Wednesday night) and treating as needed to address any icy conditions.

Then today, we got an update from SPU spokesperson Gershaneck:

Thanks again for reaching out and bringing the issue to our attention. I wanted to follow up with some actions we’ve taken in the area in the past 24 hours.

We contacted our Operations Response Center before we discovered it was a known surfacing groundwater site. An SPU crew was dispatched and able to clean nearby catch basins, which may help reduce additional water sources adding to the surfacing ground water issue. They also requested an overnight street sweeping to remove debris along SW Olga St to SW Spokane St. Although the surfacing groundwater is expected to continue, these actions may help mitigate some impacts in the near term.

junctioneer January 22, 2026 (8:41 pm)

Another hilly road with year-round surfacing groundwater that freezes is Ferry. However, it has far less traffic. I thought it was leaking pipes until I read more about Seattle’s glacier-created geography in the book “Wild in Seattle.”

Mije January 22, 2026 (9:34 pm)

There must be a way to intercept this water and keep it off the roadway. Sounds like SPU just doesn’t wanna deal with it.

Jackson The Geologist January 23, 2026 (6:40 am)

Reply

I’m a geologist- yep there are several ways to deal. One would be dewatering wells (think straws in a line that intercept the water uphill from the road and pump it elsewhere, like in to the stormwater system). Another would be a curtain drain (trench filled with gravel with a perforated pipe in it). We have delightfully complex soils in the Seattle area and it is probably something along the lines of a layer of finer silty soils underneath a layer of coarser sandier soils where groundwater moving downwards through the coarser unit is stopped and travels down gradient along the finer layer until it reaches the surface and then roadway.

Samantha January 22, 2026 (9:53 pm)

I saw a cyclist skid and fall off his bike around 6:40 am. I don’t think he was expecting the water and ice. He got up to collect his bike but he easily could have been hit while on the ground. He wore highly reflective clothing.