Some restriping work has already been done, and tomorrow, pay stations will be installed at the about-to-no-longer-be-free West Seattle Junction Association-operated parking lots. We first reported eight days ago that the change was on the way. At 12:01 am Friday, the lots are officially paid parking. So here’s what you need to know. First, here’s a map:

Medium blue marks the Junction lots that are changing from free to paid – off 44th SW just south of Oregon, off 42nd SW just south of Oregon, on the southeast corner of 44th and Alaska, and off 44th north of SW Edmunds. Dark blue marks lots that are already paid, but are not and have not been managed by WSJA.

Not shown on the map – parking that’s not affected and remains free – street parking as well as some parking spaces adjacent to businesses and marked for exclusive use of their customers, such as the spaces behind Chase Bank and Verity Credit Union (WSB sponsor), plus parts of some garages in the area. WSJA says the lots that are changing over include 228 spaces, a little less than a third of the 720 free and paid parking spaces throughout the business district.

From the WSJA FAQ on the parking change, here are the rates for the lots that are changing, not including taxes and credit-card fees (if any):

$2 for up to two hours
$4 for two to three hours
$6 for three to four hours
$10 for four to ten hours

The charges apply 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Plans for an “early bird” special are on hold pending a review of the first few months of paid parking. (Some monthly parking is available – email info@wsjunction.org if you are interested in information on that.)

You will be able to pay via either the pay stations or via CallToPark. Citations for running overtime or not paying will cost $49, and vehicles with multiple tickets are subject to towing. The first week – January 15th through January 22nd – parkers that go overtime will get warning notices; citations start after that.

The change was inevitable. Backstory, as we explained in this report almost three years ago: The WSJA, a nonprofit Business Improvement Area organization, leases the lots from West Seattle Trusteed Properties, a consortium of local business/property owners. In addition to base rent, WSJA has to cover the cost of the property tax for the sites, which has risen sharply in recent years – tripling between 2016 and 2018 – as it’s all prime, developable land in the heart of one of Seattle’s “urban centers.” WSJA had tried various fundraising campaigns in recent years, but none provided a sizable-enough stream. This won’t cover all the costs either, but it’ll help.

(File photo – southbound span is the one in the background)

Just last Wednesday, we checked in with WSDOT to ask about the schedule for the work that will close part of the southbound span of the 1st Avenue South Bridge (first reported here in October). Spokesperson Tom Pearce told us at the time that the hoped-for mid-January start seemed unlikely. Today, an update – they’re now hoping to start “in early February.” Here’s what WSDOT says you can expect when the work begins:

Our contract allows for up to 15 nights of work. At the start of the project we will need to close all lanes of southbound SR 99 between 10 pm and 5 am for one night so our contractor can set up their equipment. Travelers can expect about three weeks with the southbound bridge reduced to two lanes. We’ll also need a full overnight southbound closure at the end of the project to remove equipment.

As we reported last week, the contractor is Massana Construction of Gig Harbor. Today’s WSDOT update explains the work they’ll be doing on the 25-year-old southbound span, to “replace bearing pads (and) some steel repair and concrete bridge deck repairs.”

When – and how – will SDOT decide whether the no-through-traffic Keep Moving/Stay Healthy Street around Alki Point will be permanent?

The plan got only a vague mention during Wednesday night’s briefing on the citywide SHS program for the Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Boards, and SDOT didn’t clarify it further on followup.

It was early May when the city announced the north end of Beach Drive, along Constellation Park, would get the designation. A few days later, the west end of Alki Avenue SW was added. In a usage-comparison chart shown at Wednesday’s meeting, the Beach Drive/Alki Avenue stretch was the most used, the two other West Seattle stretches – High Point/Sunrise Heights and Highland Park/Puget Ridge – among the least:

The two non-coastal West Seattle Stay Healthy Streets’ futures are not final yet either – SDOT’s SHS program leader Summer Jawson told the boards that the city has 26 miles of Stay Healthy Streets now and will make “up to 20” of those miles permanent by summertime. So, she said, “community engagement” is ahead both for those streets and Beach Drive/Alki Avenue SW. as well as the others round the city.

She shared results from last year’s SHS online survey, including how respondents said they use the streets:

Results, Jawson said, also indicated the confusion over when it’s OK to drive on a SHS or KMS, given the “street closed” signage. So what next? Jawson said they’re working “to make sure we’ve got (SHS) in the right place moving into a post-pandemic situation” – for example, with more students returning to in-person learning, how will they deal with streets that school buses need to access? In general, here’s how they’re going to decide what becomes permanent:

The Alki Point stretch, however, is something of a special case, the SDOT reps said. “We’re going to talk more about Alki Point,” which is shown as a neighborhood greenway ‘eventually” in the Bicycle Master Plan, they said (though it’s not on the “implementation plan” running through 2024), so that might be one option for its future – keeping it a KMS and making it a greenway. They said “community-based design” is the next step, with other options including keeping it the way it is now, or splitting the street with a one-way vehicle-traffic lane and a walking/riding/rolling lane. “We’ll look at a couple different alternatives.”

The day after the meeting, we asked SDOT to elaborate on the timeline and process for the Alki Point decision, seeking more specifics – would the “outreach” entail a meeting? a survey? or? Spokesperson Dawn Schellenberg, who had also been at the boards’ meeting, would only say, “We are working on possible street concepts and developing the outreach scope,” and that the “outreach” would start in the first quarter – sometime before the end of March.

As we first reported in October, the southbound 1st Avenue South Bridge is due for some repairs that will mean lane closures. We’ve been getting some questions about whether WSDOT has set the date yet, since it had been discussed as likely to happen “in early 2021.” Now that it’s early 2021, we checked back today with WSDOT spokesperson Tom Pearce. He tells WSB, “We are still working with our contractor to set a start date. A mid-January start is in doubt.” The contractor is Massana Construction of Gig Harbor, which won the contract with a $380,000 bid.

(WSB photo, December)

The creation of no-through-traffic “Stay Healthy Streets“ was a hot topic here on WSB in 2020, taking two spots on our list of the year’s 10 most-commented stories. West Seattle has three stretches – one in High Point/Sunrise Heights (map), one in Highland Park/Puget Ridge (map), and one around Alki Point (map), technically a “Keep Moving Street” because much of it is adjacent to a park. That stretch’s future is to be determined this year; if you’re interested, the next major city briefing is coming up Wednesday (January 6th). It’s a joint meeting of the city Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Boards, online at 6 pm; the “Stay Healthy Streets” briefing is expected to start around 6:30 pm. The meeting includes public-comment periods at the beginning and end, as you can see on the agenda, which includes information on how to attend via videoconferencing or phone.

Of note since West Seattle is home to one of Seattle’s two Washington State Ferries terminals: WSF is getting a new leader. Washington State Department of Transportation announced leadership changes today, put into motion by the impending retirement of Deputy Transportation Secretary Keith Metcalf. He will be succeeded by Assistant Secretary Amy Scarton, who has led WSF since 2017. She in turn will be succeeded by Patty Rubstello (2019 WSB photo at left), who has been Assistant Secretary of Urban Mobility and Access. The announcement says Rubstello “created and led the Office of Urban Mobility & Access, which brings together tolling, regional transit coordination, and the management of mobility divisions to enhance operational and planning coordination in the greater Puget Sound area,” adding that she “has experience in design, construction, planning and traffic operations, and in 2015 served as the agency’s assistant secretary for Tolling.” The job moves start in January. Read the full announcement here.

(WSB file photo)

If you are subscribed to Metro alerts, and/or follow Metro on Twitter, you probably noticed a dramatic uptick in the number of trip alerts today – 80 via Twitter, for example, from throughout the service area, including some on West Seattle-serving routes such as the 120, 131, 128, and C Line. So we asked Metro what happened. Here’s the reply from spokesperson Jeff Switzer:

We saw a higher number of canceled trips today due to operator availability, which reflects more drivers who are out on leave. This can be due to sick calls or caring for family members or as a precaution.

Our backup drivers are filling trips as usual and some drivers also filled in when they completed their regular driving assignment. For trips we couldn’t fill in time and had to cancel, we are now sending more transit alerts and tweets than we did in the past (which used to focus on less frequent routes) to better notify riders so they can consider using alternative trips.

We are monitoring the situation and folks are doing all they can to provide service each day. We schedule nearly 11,000 bus trips per weekday across King County and staff in a way that aims to deliver well more than 99% of them, and we apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate riders’ patience.

If you’re not already signed up for Metro alerts, you can do that here.

P.S. This isn’t a real-time tool, but Metro launched a new data dashboard with lots of other info today.