By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

The next major West Seattle repaving project is on SW Barton, but many of the questions/concerns at tonight’s online community meeting were about SW Trenton – which is where buses will be rerouted.

The meeting led by SDOT and Metro reps is the one promised last year when the project was postponed and a planned in-person meeting was scrapped. It also underscored the fact that this will not be a simple or short project – the work required to build new pavement panels in concrete between 26th SW and 29th SW is expected to start sometime in April and last until sometime in fall. But because April is so close to Metro’s twice-yearly service change, the bus-routing changes will kick in starting Saturday, March 28:

and will require restriping of SW Barton in the project zone, as well as bus-zone signage and curb stripes on SW Trenton. SDOT also will move the “stop bar” on Trenton at 35th, for cars headed west.

Barton will have one traffic lane each way, on the north side of the street, between 26th SW and 29th SW. Village Green West Seattle (WSB sponsor) residents voiced concerns about access to their complex; besides offering general reassurances, the facilitators said a separate meeting is planned next week at Village Green to address any specific concerns and questions.

But the biggest concerns, as is often the case when a project happens in an area that is used by people coming far away, were about how the rerouting and parking changes will affect the many non-residents who use SW Trenton for both Nino Cantu Southwest Athletic Complex and Westwood Village access – particularly the athletic complex, which is a regional hub for sports. Not just schools, but the West Seattle Junction FC and Rhodies FC will be playing there again this summer too. That means traffic, parking, and people crossing SW Trenton. And what about businesses in the vicinity along 35th? the project team was asked. They promised more extensive flyering.

“We’re trying not to make this a headache for anyone,” insisted one of the consultants who helped transportation reps facilitate. And toward that end, Metro’s rep promised they would be monitoring “closely … at least for the first two weeks” to be sure the changes were working out as expected.

Here’s the rerouting as summarized on the project page:

Route 21 to Westwood Village: Travelling south on 35th Ave SW, before turning east onto SW Trenton St, then turning south onto 25th Ave SW.

Route 21 buses leaving Westwood Village (southbound) will turn from 35th Ave SW onto SW Trenton St. The bus will continue traveling east on SW Trenton St, with three more stops:

SW Trenton St east of 35th Ave SW
SW Trenton St at either 29th or 30th Ave SW
SW Trenton St just west of 25th Ave SW, on the north end of Westwood Village

Rapid Ride C-Line to Westwood Village: Travelling from SW Barton, turning north onto 35th Ave SW, then east onto SW Trenton St, and will continue travelling east on SW Trenton St, with three stops:

35th Ave SW and SW Trenton St
Between 29/30th Ave SW Trenton St
The last stop will come after turning southbound on 25th Ave SW, just south of SW Henderson St.
Leaving Westwood Village on the Rapid Ride C-Line or Rt. 21

Catch the Rapid Ride C-Line or Rt. 21 bus toward downtown Seattle at the southbound bus stop on 25th Ave SW just north of SW Barton St (at the southeast corner of Westwood village)

Also surfaced to the project team: Collision history and speeding on 35th, and one other concern that didn’t have to do with traffic or buses: The Roxhill Bog revival project (recently celebrated with an event at the park). Since part of this project is described as keeping peat beneath the road from continuing to destabilize it, is there a chance it will interfere with the work done to revive the bog? asked a Village Green resident.

The project team said they’d had “several meetings” about it and had assurances that their work “shouldn’t affect the bog in any long-term way.”

They promised a recording of the hour-long meeting will be published; we’ve also requested the full slide deck and hope to add that when we receive it on Tuesday. They don’t have an exact construction start date yet, saying a contractor had just been brought on board.