(WSB photos, this afternoon)

3:49 PM: The Admiral Way Bridge earthquake-strengthening project is still months away from completion. We’d been pursuing an update from SDOT after noticing the project webpage said they expected to wrap up within weeks; SDOT now says that was a mistake (and has corrected the project page) – their estimate for completion remains “summer,” as we’ve previously reported. Here’s what’s ahead:

Admiral Way SW (on top of the bridge)
The work zone will change periodically over the next several months, but our construction plan is to leave at least one lane of Admiral Way SW on the bridge open in each direction. Both sidewalks will also remain open throughout construction.

Fairmount Ave SW Closure (below the bridge)
Fairmount Ave SW will remain closed to all travelers throughout construction. This closure keeps everyone safe while work happens on the bridge above, and helps our crews work efficiently.

When the project started in early July of last year, the completion estimate was spring.

ADDED 7:52 PM: We asked SDOT for some info on what’s been done so far. Spokesperson Ethan Bergerson‘s reply also included their explanation why this is expected to take months longer than first projected:

The project is more than halfway complete. The following project elements are currently in progress:

-Installing carbon fiber wrapping to strengthen the bridge
-Slope stabilization
-Painting the steel structure
-Repairing cracks and damaged concrete
-Replacing the expansion joints at both ends of the bridge  

(Regarding the) previous estimate that the project would be completed in the spring. After the June 2024 factsheet was written, the project scope was expanded to include full painting of the steel structure. This extended the anticipated construction completion into the summer.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

SDOT is out with the plan for what it’s going to do with funding from the first year of the $1.55 billion Transportation Levy that Seattle voters passed in November.

After releasing the plan (read it here) this afternoon, SDOT managers – including director Greg Spotts, on his second-to-last day on the job – hosted a media briefing online. They gave an overview you can peruse in this slide deck; we went through the plan itself for every West Seattle reference we could find.

First, you should note that what’s in the plan is NOT everything SDOT will be doing this year. There are many projects that use non-levy funding. For example, District 1 City Councilmember Rob Saka‘s proposal to change the configuration of Delridge Way near a RapidRide H Line stop by the Refugee and Immigrant Family Center Preschool is not in it – but that doesn’t mean it’s not happening. We’ve been asking SDOT and Metro about that project’s status, and what they tell us is what SDOT managers said during today’s briefing – the two agencies are talking about what’s possible, although SDOT still believes that what’s there now – which includes a hardened raised median – is safe, because that’s what it was designed to be. Because they’re in early conversations, there’s no specific plan nor timeline yet, and they expect to consider “a universe of solutions.”

Now, back to what IS in the 2025 levy-spending plan for West Seattle – no details yet beyond these basic descriptions:

-The SW Brandon sidewalk, also something Councilmember Saka has mentioned repeatedly, from 26th to 30th, is mentioned as an “anticipated initial project”

-“Alki Traffic Calming,” described as planned for 60th, 61st, and 62nd between Admiral Way and Alki Avenue, with construction expected to start in 2025

-Two other “traffic calming” projects listed as expected to “start planning” in 2025 – 49th Ave SW and SW Graham St (scene of a deadly crash last year) and SW Henderson at Westcrest Park

-Sylvan Way SW (High Point Dr to Sylvan Heights Dr Mid-Block, noted as a “high-collision safety project”

-16th Ave SW–SW Brandon St (Trailhead) to SW Henderson St, noted as a “traffic-calming project”

-26th Ave SW–SW Barton St to SW Roxbury St, noted as a “traffic-calming project”

-SW Trenton St–35th Ave SW to Delridge Way SW, noted as a “traffic-calming project”

-“Safe Routes to School” projects for Highland Park, Lafayette, and West Seattle Elementaries, plus Madison Middle School and Pathfinder K-8

-Evaluation of potential paving projects (as previously reported) for 35th SW between SW Alaska and SW Morgan, Olson Pl SW/1st Ave S: 2nd Ave SW to SW Cloverdale, and/or Fauntleroy Way in The Triangle

-Asphalt spot paving for 35th Ave SW between SW 106th and SW 108th, SW Orchard between Delridge and Dumar

-Concrete spot paving for 16th SW between Myrtle and Holly, Delridge Way between Genesee and Dakota, SW Alaska between Fauntleroy Way and 38th

-“Transit spot improvements” including asphalt paving on SW Oregon between California and 44th (Routes 50 and 128)

-“Advance key connections to future Link light rail stations in coordination with partner agencies” on SW Alaska

-Start sidewalk design for SW Hudson St between Delridge and 26th

-Sidewalk repairs at California/Edmunds

-Curb ramps on 16th SW at South Seattle College, Brandon, Holden; at 36th/Andover; at 39th/Genesee; at 49th/Raymond; at 47th/Frontenac; at 55th/Manning; at 60th/Admiral

-Stairway repairs at 21st/Dakota

-Crossing improvements at Delridge/Alaska, 29th/Brandon, 9th/Henderson, 28th/Thistle; start designing improvements for Delridge/Cloverdale

-“Major signal maintenance” at 26th/Roxbury and California/Erskine/Edmunds (which is also slated for a pedestrian-accessibility improvement)

-Signal timing at 47th/Admiral (described as fiber-network expansion)

-Neighborhood greenway listed as “Alki Point Phase 2”

-Protected bike lane on Highland Park Way between West Marginal and Holden (“start design” this year – this is the “lane conversion” project that’s undergone much community discussion)

-Protected bike lane “upgrades” on Admiral Way between Spokane and Olga (the hill just north of the West Seattle Bridge) and on Andover between Delridge and Avalon

We asked about plans for communicating details of each project; SDOT says web info about projects will be available when they’re further along the path to construction. Meantime, this plan is scheduled to be discussed with the council’s Transportation Committee, which Councilmember Saka chairs, on February 18th. SDOT says it’ll have a spending plan to present at the start of each year of the levy’s eight-year life, and that an oversight committee will be appointed for this levy, as has been the case for others.

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(WSB photos by Dave Gershgorn, unless otherwise credited)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

In the waning moments of today’s two-hour Rethink the Link-presented forum on the West Seattle light-rail project, a ghost from a quarter-century ago appeared: The long-ago, voter-approved-then-scuttled plan for monorail service to West Seattle and elsewhere.

This spectre was raised by the father of the monorail himself, Dick Falkenbury. He wasn’t on the panel, nor had anyone brought up the monorail until an attendee asked about the original Seattle Initiative 41.

(WSB photo by Tracy Record)

Falkenbury rose shortly thereafter to warn everyone in the room that “Sound Transit is punking you” and shortly thereafter to declare that he was there to “hijack the meeting,” eventually offering to decamp to a nearby coffee shop and talk with anyone interested.

Also in the late going, a Lake Forest Park activist told the room that “fighting Sound Transit is like fighting a gigantic Pillsbury Doughboy” and suggested they’d need up to $100,000 if they wanted to pursue legal action against the transit agency, something he said his LFP neighbors were mulling.

The prospect of West Seattle legal action was hinted at by one of today’s panelists, longtime Sound Transit critic John Niles of Smarter Transit, explaining to attendees that there was still time to comment on the West Seattle Link Extension plan while the federal environmental record is still open, and that they “might be setting up for some public interest legal types to do something if this keeps going the way it’s going.”

(L-R, panelists Conrad Cipoletti, Marty Westerman, Martin Pagel, John Niles)

Before Niles and other panelists sat down in the Center for Active Living‘s second-floor event hall to recount their long-voiced concerns, the event started with time to circulate among displays placed around the room, including maps of the routing options the Sound Transit Board approved in October, and lists such as properties that would be affected.

The ~40+ attendees also were invited to write questions for the panel to answer.

RTL’s Alan McMurray introduced the panelists; along with Niles, they were Conrad Cipoletti, described as a “car-free community advocate,” who moderated; Marty Westerman, whose related community involvement has included the West Seattle Transportation Coalition and greenspace advocacy; and Martin Pagel, who along with Westerman has advocated in the past for a gondola system instead of West Seattle light rail, though that option did not arise as a discussion topic today. Here’s our video of the discussion (up until the last ~10 minutes of Q&A, lost to a recording glitch):

Many of the points panelists addressed are contentions that Rethink the Link has made before, repeatedly. Their overarching argument is that West Seattle would be better served, at a far lower cost, by increasing bus service. Observed Niles, “It would be amazing what Metro could do with an extra billion dollars.”

Last year, you might recall, ST revised its high-end potential West Seattle cost estimate to $7 billion. That was another theme today, the higher price tag and lower ridership estimate than what was discussed before voters approved ST3 in 2016, the ballot measure that included a plan for extending light rail to West Seattle. The current plan “is not what you voted for,” Westerman declared. Pagel said he’s not against spending money on light rail but considers the current plan too much money to serve too few riders. “Is West Seattle the right place to do that? … Is it worth it for 5,400 riders [a day]? We have other Seattle projects in the wings. … Management focusing on West Seattle is a huge distraction from what they should be focusing on.”

The panelists spent a fair amount of time on environmental issues as well. RTL contends that Sound Transit is dismissing the “construction carbon” that will be generated by building West Seattle light rail, focusing only on eventual carbon savings by people riding light rail instead of driving gas-burning vehicles. Carbon is carbon, they said, whether it’s “construction or operational.” Not to mention, Niles – who identified himself as an EV owner/driver – said even the federal administration change won’t stop transportation electrification, and that should factor more into the stats than it did originally. “Anything approved in 2016 is way out of date; the world has changed,” What’s the ST plan for mitigating effects to Longfellow Creek?

Westerman said there didn’t seem to be “much of one.” Some questions like that might have been ideally posed to Sound Transit reps, but none were there (RTL said they had “notified” the agency of their event). Meantime, they also noted that it seems counterproductive to be carving into the greenbelt along Pigeon Point while trying to increase tree canopy in the nearby Duwamish Valley. What will be done with the cut trees? That too was a question perhaps ST could have answered.

Though the ST Board has taken its vote on routing and station locations, the panelists stressed that there’s still an opportunity for public comment until the federal Record of Decision is finalized – something that originally was expected before year’s end, but now is projected for next month. “A lot of your money is being spent on this,” Niles exhorted in explaining why people should comment.

One attendee wondered if a ballot measure would be appropriate. Someone piped up from elsewhere in the room to say that Sound Transit isn’t subject to initiatives. “We need to be more aggressive – we can’t be waiting for February,” asserted another attendee. Yet another said, “We need someone like [public-interest superlawyer] Erin Brockovich.”

Niles suggested that people would do best to talk with elected officials, especially state legislators, because ST is a state creation. He also suggested they take note of who’s on the board (Seattle city reps are Mayor Bruce Harrell and Councilmember Dan Strauss) and who’s running to succeed Dow Constantine (who remains on the board through year’s end) as County Executive (two of the candidates, County Councilmembers Claudia Balducci and Girmay Zahilay, are already on the board).

Just in at the end of the day – SDOT‘s latest update on the Alki Point Healthy Street, in the form of a 50-page slide deck. Toward the end, they’ve finally decided what they’re going to do with the southern stretch, part of this list of what’s planned for this year, including extending the walking/biking/rolling lane, adding flashing crossing beacons at 63rd/Beach, and trying to address the “cul-de-sac” confusion on the north side:

And they’re considering making the Beach Drive stretch one-way:

This all follows results of the survey SDOT ran last fall, for which they say they received more than 1,100 responses. Detailed results are here. Here’s the SDOT summary:

If you’ve forgotten how that survey was circulated, here are their toplines on that:

They included study results of usage of the Healthy Street on given dates:

That included a walking/biking breakdown:

And they included some info on how data was connected:

SDOT also says the remaining parking in the area was nowhere near maxed out on the days they studied it:

The full slide deck/report also includes some project history.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Almost a decade ago, after five deaths in seven years, SDOT made big changes to two miles of 35th Avenue SW, between Roxbury and Willow.

Most of the stretch had its speed limit and number of travel lanes cut. In the years since then – no fatalities, on either the rechannelized section of 35th, or the street north of there.

Originally, that was 35th SW Phase 1, and the city planned a Phase 2. But in 2018, SDOT announced it had no plans for further rechannelization, while taking pains to say that wasn’t off the table forever. Phase 2 instead encompassed some one-off changes that have been made in the ensuing years – including signals at 35th/Graham and 35th/Dawson (Camp Long), restoration of a crosswalk at 35th/Kenyon, and addition of left-turn signals at 35th/Barton.

Then last year, the north stretch of 35th resurfaced as a named project in the new Seattle Transportation Levy (briefly removed, then restored). But the description was fairly vague – the section between Alaska and Morgan was labeled a “corridor for street maintenance and modernization” and so it remained through passage of the eight-year, $1.55 billion levy. Once the post-election dust settled, we started asking SDOT about specifics, given how much interest Phase 1 had drawn last decade.

Eventually, we were connected to two longtime SDOT communicators for an online chat about the project – which they also insisted has almost zero specifics, but at least attempted to explain why. Meghan Shepard and Dan Anderson stressed that the 35th SW project is not in the “earliest group” of levy-specified projects to be planned, and so is truly at “0 percent” design and planning. Pre-election materials say the “extent” of this and other projects will be decided by a “design process,” and Shepard said there’ll be a “long lead time” – two or three years of planning.

So why was it chosen if it’s not urgent? “Same reasons as (other projects in the levy) – it’s carrying a lot of vehicles, and the pavement needs attention.” The longterm vision comes from the Seattle Transportation Plan, and the levy is expected to fund “five or six” major paving projects such as this one. Once that “design process” is launched, key decisions will be made such as whether to totally rebuild the road in concrete – as has happened with most projects in recent years, such as the Delridge repaving accompanying the RapidRide H Line conversion , and the Fauntleroy Way repaving between The Triangle and Morgan Junction 15 years ago.

Project funding will come from a $330 million bucket of levy money which will have to cover all the levy’s paving projects, Anderson said. (Two others in West Seattle were identified – Fauntleroy Way in The Triangle, part of the shelved-because-of-light-rail “Fauntleroy Boulevard” plan, and the east end of the Roxbury corridor.)

Would the Alaska-to-Morgan section of 35th, much of which has kept two travel lanes each way, be evaluated for rechannelization whenever the paving project gets going?

Yes, said Anderson: “This is what planners do.” They’ll evaluate it compared to “current standards” including bicycling and transit. They’ll also be working with Seattle Public Utilities to see if any sections need a new water main, so that all the work can be done while the road’s torn up for paving. Sidewalk repairs and crossing improvements also could be part of the eventual plan.

So who makes the ultimate decision on what will get done and when?

Every year a “levy delivery plan” will be brought to the City Council by the end of January, the SDOT reps said (the first one is due by January 31 of this year). As was the case with the now-expired Levy to Move Seattle, there also will be an oversight committee – this one hasn’t been appointed yet, but in a change from past practice, it will include a member from each council district. And the SDOT duo promised there will be “engagement” (the previous 35th projects were preceded by many community meetings, although toward the end they moved from the “presentation to audience and Q/A for all” format to the “circulate around to easels for one-on-one conversations” format).

Bottom line – though it’s called out in the Transportation Levy, 35th SW’s future remains in TBA mode.

(WSB photo, July 27, 2022)

SDOT will be changing directors again. After 2+ years, Greg Spotts announced today that he’s leaving in 2025. “This morning I notified the Mayor of my intent to resign my position effective 2/12/25. On a personal level, moving to Seattle alone has been hard, particularly living so far away from my mother in CA and father in NY. In 2025 I will pursue professional opportunities closer to my loved ones.” Spotts was an executive in Los Angeles’s transportation department when Mayor Bruce Harrell hired him to succeed SDOT’s previous non-interim director, Sam Zimbabwe; he was confirmed right before the West Seattle Bridge’s 2 1/2-year closure ended in September 2022. Harrell at the time called him a “transformational leader.” Zimbabwe had the job for three years, hired by Harrell’s predecessor Jenny Durkan.

(Saturday image from SDOT camera looking west across low bridge)

On Saturday, we reported on the West Seattle low bridge going out of service for hours. Following up today with SDOT, we learned from spokesperson Mariam Ali that this all traces back to the September crash that closed it for six days:

We’re still uncovering small electrical issues that have arisen since the crash into the barrier. It seems the impact has caused an intermittent electrical short, which is tripping the fuse. The sporadic nature of this problem has made it tough to diagnose.

Additionally, there’s another intermittent issue that led to longer closures, like the one we saw on Saturday. This problem involves the controller mistakenly registering that the barrier is fully closed when it isn’t. The root of the issue lies in a mechanical gear that triggers a limit switch as the barrier opens and closes. Sometimes, this gear can slip or skip a tooth, throwing it out of sync with the gate’s movement. We’re continually making adjustments to minimize this movement and keep the gear aligned, but the problem persists.

We are working with the barrier manufacturer to find a more permanent fix.