UPDATE: Flooded road at Orchard/Delridge after sewage overflow

8:03 AM: Multiple texters report road flooding has closed Orchard at Delridge. We’ll be checking on it shortly.

10:06 AM: We’ve since learned from Seattle Public Utilities spokesperson Ingrid Goodwin that this is a sewage overflow:

Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) has responded this morning to a sewage overflow in West Seattle at Delridge Way SW and SW Orchard Street. The sewage is discharging north on Delridge to SW Myrtle Street and eventually overflowing into Longfellow Creek. SPU crews have posted signs alerting residents to stay out of the water, which may be contaminated. Orchard Street near Delridge Way is closed while spill response and drainage and wastewater crews contain the overflow and begin the clean-up. The volume of the spill is unknown at this time.

This is primarily happening on the east and north sides of the Delridge/Orchard intersection. You might recall that SPU worked in recent months on what was supposed to be a combined-sewer-overflow-control project, so we’ll be following up to see what went wrong.

9:36 PM: While Orchard east of Delridge was still closed in late afternoon, it’s now open, but narrowed – one lane each way, with an area blocked off at curbside on the westbound side for a short distance. No crews on scene now so we’d have to guess this will continue into the morning commute; we’ll check back by 7 am or so.

9 Replies to "UPDATE: Flooded road at Orchard/Delridge after sewage overflow"

  • sam-c November 15, 2015 (10:19 am)

    Ugh. Gross. I wonder what went wrong with their new cso project. Your tax dollars at work…….

  • walker November 15, 2015 (10:55 am)

    Bottom of Ferry Avenue, just above Harbor Ave., is closed because of a fallen tree.

  • Trickycoolj November 15, 2015 (11:18 am)

    How’s that rain garden working out? Can we have our lane back? I love how much traffic backs up at 5:00 trying to get home all for the sake of more sewage overflow!

  • tim November 15, 2015 (1:01 pm)

    This not a rain garden.

  • d-red November 15, 2015 (1:50 pm)

    At 3:45am, we had overland flow across Delridge at Myrtle. Not down the stairs, but several yards north of them. At Myrtle, looking east, uphill, the washout is discernable. There was enough water crossing Delridge to see it had depth and flow. There was no flow at Orchard.

  • sam-c November 15, 2015 (7:29 pm)

    Has the intersection reopened? It was still closed around 1 pm

    • WSB November 15, 2015 (8:00 pm)

      Still was when we went by at 4. I’m going to run over and look in an hour or so because if it’s still closed as of late tonight that brings up a potential problem for the morning commute and we’ll need to check first thing in the am, too.

  • sam-c November 15, 2015 (8:50 pm)

    Yes. That would be a huge PITA in the morning commute.

    • WSB November 15, 2015 (9:32 pm)

      I’ll add this to the story but in short, it’s open but narrowed – one lane each way for a short distance just east of Delridge, because the curbside area where work was focused today is still taped off. I would expect that will be the situation throughout the morning commute so we’ll include a warning and we’ll check back around 7-ish. – TR

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