Traffic alert: Stretch of southbound 1st Ave. So. to be closed

Traffic alert for West Seattleites who use 1st Avenue South to and from downtown, just in from SDOT:

The southbound lanes on First Avenue South will be closed between South King Street and Railroad Way South from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. from Thursday, August 13 to Tuesday August 18 for operation of a crane on a private building. The sidewalk on the west side of First Avenue South will also be closed.

Here’s a map of that section. 2:07 PM UPDATE: SDOT has sent an update with more details, including a detour:

The southbound lanes on First Avenue South will be closed between South King Street and Railroad Way South from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, August 13 and 14, and Monday and, Tuesday, August 17 and 18. The sidewalk on the western side of First Avenue South will also be closed. A detour will be provided to South King Street and then to Railroad Way, back to First Avenue South. (Please note that Railroad Way is divided by a median, so traffic turning left from King Street to head south on Railroad Way must stay to the right of the median.) The closure is needed for the operation of a large crane working on a private building.

sam August 12, 2009 (9:43 am)

what? they couldn’t pick a weekend when the M’s were away? They are playing the (*&^%#*&^) Yankees this weekend too.

John August 12, 2009 (10:01 am)

So what’s the Metro bus redirect going to be like during this time?

GenHillOne August 12, 2009 (10:02 am)

On a main route, that’s already been torn up, during a Mariners’ homestand, for a “private crane”? I hope the private crane had to pay through the teeth for this.

Downtown Curmudgeon August 12, 2009 (10:20 am)

What? this is just terrible. the sky will probably fall in or something. i would rather halt progress and jobs, than suffer a little inconvenience for a few days.

Eugene Goodrich August 12, 2009 (10:35 am)

If you offer to pay the interest on the multimillion-dollar loan the builder took out to construct this building for the duration of the Mariners’ homestand, I bet the builder would be amenable to rescheduling this craning.

uptown August 12, 2009 (11:30 am)

Since the company involved is probably saving money by taking over the street, they should have to pay for blocking a publicly owned right of way.

Just say NO to corporate welfare.

Lee August 12, 2009 (1:36 pm)

Isn’t the Mariners a private company? And don’t the Mariner fans typically bog up the roadways to get to games when the rest of us just want to get home after work? And does anyone see the Mariner games being scheduled to avoid making it inconvenient for the rest of us?

Allie August 12, 2009 (3:02 pm)

Allie from SDOT here – few quick notes:

The Mariners play at 7:10pm on Thur/Fri and the crane will be out of the way by 3pm – so it shouldn’t interfere. They are not working on Sat/Sun so you should have no trouble getting to those games. Well, no more than usual. : )

Also uptown – they do pay a permit fee for blocking the right-of-way so it’s not corporate welfare.

Imwithleeonthisone August 12, 2009 (4:01 pm)

my name says it all.

crisis averted August 12, 2009 (4:25 pm)

Allie – thanks for the clarification- wasn’t sure if it was the type of crane that could be moved off-street, and thought maybe it was going to be there all weekend.

GenHillOne August 12, 2009 (5:17 pm)

Lee (& friend) – I was thinking of all those not going to the game when I said that too… compounding the problem, yadda yadda. Thanks for clarifying Allie, seems like the weekend will loosen up a bit.

Gray Sky August 14, 2009 (7:24 am)

I ride this bus route everyday. Even without this closure, driving on First Ave is like driving on the moon. We’re talking multiple 6″ drops in the pavement in the area of Starbucks HQ. Can’t SDOT do any better?

Sorry, comment time is over.