SDOT plans to finally finish repaving Beach Drive SW between Me-Kwa-Mooks and Weather Watch Parks. You might recall that the stretch between Carroll and Genesee was originally announced for last year, but crews left after stopping a short distance south of Carroll. They told us at the time that the repaving would resume but didn’t say when. That was the last we heard of it until this notice today:

As the notice says, the work is scheduled – weather permitting – to start next Wednesday. (Here’s a map of the area.) Meantime, if that leaves you wondering about the removed-but-planned-for-replacement speed bumps (aka humps) further south on Beach Drive, SDOT anticipated that question and adds, “Also note that we are working to schedule construction on the Beach Drive speed hump replacement and will notify the community in advance.”

Four days after SDOT‘s Avalon/35th/Alaska repaving-and-rechannelization project launched work – starting on Avalon between Yancy and Genesee – we’ve just received the toplines of what’s next, including a bus-stop closure starting Monday and advance word of intersection work next weekend:

Overview of upcoming work for next week

What you should expect:
 Lots of construction activity including jackhammering, removing the east portion of the roadway, large trucks, machines, noise, dust, and vibrations.  We will coordinate with residents for driveway closures.
 Uniformed police officers will typically be onsite
 Typical weekday work hours from 7 AM – 5 PM. There will be some weekend and nighttime work.
 We have heard that Seattle Public Utilities will be working to make some water service renewals along SW Avalon Way. They will coordinate directly with neighbors as their work is scheduled.
 Buses are making in-lane stops. Please follow the safe passageways set up for your safety.

Starting Monday, April 22nd the northbound stop at Genesee will be temporarily closed.
 Sign up for Metro’s Rider Alerts to stay up to date on stop relocations. If a stop is relocated or a bus is detoured, signs will also be posted along the corridor.

Traffic impacts and detours:
 30th Ave SW will be temporarily closed for construction staging. You will not be able to access SW Avalon Way from 30th Ave SW.
 Right turns only on SW Avalon Way. For the safety of people driving and our crews, we
are allowing right turns only throughout work zone B. People turning into their driveway will
need to turn right into their driveways and will not be permitted to turn across traffic.
 No Parking signs throughout zone B, and into zones A and C to facilitate the traffic shift.
 We will maintain one lane of traffic in each direction on SW Avalon Way between SW Genesee St and SW Yancy St

For people walking and biking along SW Avalon Way:
 Bikers should use extreme caution on SW Avalon Way and consider traveling on alternative routes
 Sidewalk and crosswalk detours. Please follow posted pedestrian detours when you see them.

Weekend work is scheduled for April 27 and 28 at the intersection of SW Avalon Way and the
east side of SW Genesee St.

We need to work across multiple lanes of traffic in the intersection to do water utility repairs along SW Avalon Way. People driving west on SW Genesee St will not be able to access SW Avalon Way. One lane of traffic in each direction will be maintained on SW Avalon Way through the SW Genesee St intersection. We will maintain local access to driveways on SW Genesee St near the SW Avalon Way intersection.

SDOT is also requesting: “If you have a driveway on SW Avalon Way between SW Genesee St and SW Yancy St, please reach out to us with your address and best contact information.” … AvalonPaving@seattle.gov is the contact address (also for anyone with questions/concerns).

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That’s the traffic revision on Avalon at Genesee, as we saw it while driving through late this afternoon, on the second day since the year-plus Avalon/35th/Alaska repaving/rechannelization project started gearing up. We’ve also received an update from SDOT‘s project spokesperson Adonis Ducksworth:

After assessing the project corridor today, we will be staging our equipment at 30th Ave NE from SW Avalon Way to the nearest driveway. This location was chosen because it minimizes impacts of people traveling from SW Avalon Way to the Delridge neighborhood. Local Access and Driveway access on 30th Ave SW will be maintained via SW Yancy and SW Genesee streets. Crews will be storing equipment and materials for our work in Zone B at this location. We expect this closure to last up to 3 months.

Additionally, we have a no left turn in place for southbound SW Avalon Way at the SW Genesee St intersection. The no left turn is in place for safety of people driving due to the inability for a left-turn queue during construction as we begin work near the SW Genesee St intersection.

Zone B is the Genesee-to-Yancy section of Avalon where work will be done first; early next month, work will start on 35th between Avalon and Alaska. For more project details, including the rest of the phasing, see the preview we published last Friday.

It’s time! The city has opened voting on proposed Neighborhood Street Fund projects. Through May 5th, you can use this ballot to vote for five projects you’d like to get funded. Assuming you want to vote in West Seattle/South Park District 1 (you can choose a different district on the ballot if you prefer), here are your choices – we’ve linked them to the full-proposal PDFs as also linked on the ballot:

*Trenton Street Improvements
*West Seattle Bridge Trail Connections
*Admiral Junction Pedestrian Crossing Improvements
*Sylvan Way Low-Cost Sidewalks
*Pedestrian Crossings in The Junction
*SW Holden Street Improvements
*Sylvan Way SW Improvements
*Highland Park Way Improvements
*Marine View Drive SW Guard Rail
*Delridge Pedestrian Crossings
*Westwood Transit Center Improvements
*Longfellow Creek Safety Improvements
*Crosswalk at 26th and Cambridge
*SW Brandon Street Sidewalks

Eligibility rules:

Voting is open to anyone age 11 and up who lives, works, goes to school, worships, receives services, volunteers, or is part of a program in the City of Seattle.

The ballot’s also available in Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Somali, all linked here. If you’d rather not vote online, you can also do it at Seattle Public Library branches, or at a pop-up voting event – nearest one will be April 24, 3-6 pm, at Roxbury Safeway (which is, oddly, outside city limits, but not by much – 9620 28th SW). Results of this vote will go to the Move Seattle Levy Oversight Committee for final decisionmaking.
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The photo is from SDOT‘s Avalon project team, with this urgent alert:

Last week we placed “no parking signs” up along SW Avalon Way but this morning we noticed many cars were still parked along the west side of SW and a few still parked along the east side of SW Avalon Way. Unfortunately, we will need to tow cars that are parked within the work zone if they are not moved before noon today so we can begin our work.

As we reported again Friday with this in-depth preview, work on the year-long repaving/rechannelization is starting today.

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

The newest “no parking” signs along part of Avalon, south/west of the Luna Park business district, are the first sign of what’s about to begin – SDOT‘s Avalon/35th/Alaska project.

The $14.5 million project’s been in the planning stages for more than two years, when it was announced as a “repaving” project but also revealed to include reconfiguration of much of the road. Over the next year-plus, work will be done in phases on the entire length of Avalon – from the West Seattle Bridge to Fauntleroy Way – as well as three blocks of 35th SW between Avalon and Alaska, and one block of SW Alaska west of 35th. Here’s the detailed rechannelization plan:

(It’s also visible here in PDF.)

We’ve been following the planning process all along, but with work starting next week, it’s time for a closeup look at what you’ll see happening with SDOT’s biggest West Seattle project in a while, so we went downtown to SDOT offices in the Seattle Municipal Tower to talk with key members of the project team – Adonis Ducksworth and Bill Clark.

As previously noted, the project area is broken into zones. As announced last week, work will begin in Zone B, along Avalon between Yancy and Genesee.

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The next big road project in West Seattle is about to start, and SDOT has just sent new information on exactly where it will get going with the first phase of repaving and rechannelizing SW Avalon Way, with three blocks of 35th and one block of Alaska as part of the project too. Here are the new details from SDOT:

Construction is scheduled to begin as soon as April 15 in Zone B – on SW Avalon Way from SW Genesee St to SW Yancy St. The decision to begin work in Zone B was made after SDOT consulted businesses along SW Avalon Way about what phasing would have the least impact on their summer schedules and business operations.

Work in Zone B will include:
-Paving the street
-New protected bike lanes
-Installing a new RapidRide transit island
-Closing 30th Ave SW at SW Avalon Way to prevent cut-through driving
-Applying a skid-resistant surface treatment on SW Genesee St
-New drainage
-New curb ramps

What you should expect when construction begins between SW Genesee St and SW Yancy St:

-You will see construction crews mobilize into the area to begin staging and setting up traffic control
-Traffic will be shifted down to 1 lane in each direction
-Parking will be fully restricted along the street
-There will be intermittent closures of SW Genesee St and SW Yancy St
-The beginning of noise, dust, large trucks and machines operating, and an overall construction presence and experience

As soon as early May, construction is also anticipated to begin along 35th Ave SW between SW Alaska St and SW Avalon Way (Zone E). We will provide more information on what to expect as the schedule for this work is confirmed as well as the schedule for work in additional zones is confirmed.

In order to minimize impacts during construction, we will be:

-Putting out “Businesses are Open” signs along the corridor
-Designating load zones for deliveries and pick ups
-Sending frequent email listserv updates to the community; sign up on SDOT’s website

Businesses along the corridor can also reach out to the Seattle Office of Economic Development (OED) Small Business Development Program for assistance with construction impacts. Please reach out to AJ Cari, the OED’s Construction Impacts Advocate, at aj.cari@seattle.gov or at 206-684-0133 for additional help and information on how the OED can help you prepare for construction.

It’s been two years since SDOT started ramping up the Avalon project. The other project the department was talking up back then, Roxbury repaving, has since been shelved indefinitely.

(WSB photo, this afternoon along Harbor Avenue)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

It was a multimodal edition of the West Seattle Transportation Coalition‘s just-adjourned monthly meeting tonight, tackling bike share and light rail.

First – the two-wheeled transportation.

FREE-FLOATING BIKE SHARE: WSTC has been working for a while to arrange a “conversation about free-floating bike share,” chair Michael Taylor-Judd noted. This one included overviews from reps of both services that are currently operating in West Seattle, as well as some pointed questions.

First to speak: Jump senior operations manager Kian Mousavi. He went through some backstory. Though Uber owns Jump now, it began independently, launching in Buffalo, NY in 2013, taking on this name in 2017, and selling to Uber in 2018. In Sacramento, Jump has more rides than Uber.

As for why Jump is dockless – unlike Seattle’s previous bikeshare Pronto – “convenient for the user … you’re way more likely to find a bike within a five-minute walk.” Ending rides at intended destinations, rather than at docks, allows the company to learn more about how their bikes are being used.

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