West Seattle, Washington
02 Wednesday
You can make your opinions about the viaduct measures, and other transportation issues (including future tax votes), known via this new “opinionnaire.” (!)
In December, the city promised curb bulbs, for starters, to make things a little bit better at the 47th/Admiral intersection where Tatsuo Nakata was hit and killed. Construction was supposed to have started by now; an e-mail tip noted there’s at least an outline on the street (which we subsequently, albeit non-thrillingly, photographed):
West Seattle Blogger Spouse reports street sweepers working Cali Ave much of the day, apparently tackling the sand from Snowpocalypse ’07. Glad to hear it, having recently been caught in clouds of dust kicked up by hill-climbing buses traveling over the street-side sandpiles!
If you managed to escape the slick commute early this am, you’re lucky — some of the streets on our end of WS looked almost as iced-over as during the height of the winterfest we “enjoyed” earlier this month. We mention this as an excuse to look ahead; the weather experts say tomorrow could be a rerun. (We need a better ice scraper.)
Some kind of accident had Fauntleroy blocked off most of the way between Cali and Alaska when we headed out a bit earlier this morning. Not sure if it’s cleared yet, but wanted to pass this along just in case.
Interesting tidbit in this city press release, regarding what happens to all the sand dropped on the bridges and arterials, after the snow and ice becomes only a memory.
The crowd at Thriftway is positively giddy about the afternoon melt-off giving them the chance to flee their snowbound domiciles … one lady in the meat section nearly mowed us down with enthusiasm, declaring without provocation, “This is the FIRST time I’ve been out in A WEEK! My freezer’s almost EMPTY! Seeing all this is like a CANDY STORE!” Oh by the way, at least as of 4 pm-ish, despite this morning’s snow, the arterials are in better shape than ever; the bridge doesn’t even have as much ice/slush on the inside shoulder as yesterday; but the side streets’ condition depends on what shape they were in before this morning. The iciest ones stayed that way; the ones where bare spots had started to bloom still show blacktop. Here’s hoping tonight doesn’t REALLY get all that cold …
We haven’t been out driving but wanted to remind you that our West Seattle cams page has the city cameras for the bridge and for Fauntleroy/Alaska and Fauntleroy/35th. As for buses, we’re not seeing specific alerts but there’s a lot of great info on the Metro page including where the buses are and when. If you’ve got road info, feel free to post it in the comments here.
If you have Monday trash pickup, watch out for collection trucks, which are still trying to make their way around here on the south end of WS as of right now … The side streets on the higher hilltops are still very icy, but after a sunny slightly-above-freezing day, spots of blacktop have started to appear — ah, such a welcome sight, like the green tips of crocus leaves poking up in spring. But we digress. The arterials are just lovely, though the left edge of the westbound WS Bridge remains iced over, and the ramp to it from 99 has lingering slick spots. Enjoy it while you can, since the forecast for tomorrow hasn’t mellowed out yet (we’ve now got a “snow advisory” for 4 am-10 am, go to work late if possible) …
Snow is still in tonight’s forecast. Didn’t know chains (if any are left for sale) cost as little as $35. Never HAD to know!
Figured a list like this had to be out there on the city website somewhere — and it is: The 2006-2007 Snow and Ice Routes. Zoom in and take a close look at the WS streets — it reveals, for example, that here on our end of WS, Cali is only considered a “primary” route as far south as Holden; that leaves a half-mile stretch at the highest elevations identified as “secondary.” Elsewhere, heaven forbid we ever get major snow down to the water — no part of Alki Ave or Beach Drive or even Harbor is considered primary OR secondary. Part of the info on this page explains how the routes are prioritized.
Viaduct and high bridge still in pretty good shape, but that ramp from 99 to the bridge is still dangerous … Once in WS, where the surface arterials such as Fauntleroy are fine, we checked out 35th today instead of Cali. It’s clearly been plowed (dirty snow stacked up on the center line) and sanded, but there are some danger spots. Still gotta go really slowly uphill. And there are some icy spots around the summit (Myrtle/Holden). Oh, and those side streets, still ice-sheet nightmares. It’s not really warming up for a few more days, either … hey … wait … now there are FLURRIES in the forecast????
As of mid-afternoon: Bridge in good shape (though the ramp from 99 to the bridge has dicey sides). Fauntleroy, “bare and wet” as they describe it when mountain passes are in OK shape this time of year, though that could mean trouble if it’s still wet when the sun goes down (considering this really will be a COOOOOOLD night — 13 degrees????). The Cali hill through Gatewood & Upper Fauntleroy — snowy, sandy, rugged, gonna be hell going down that tomorrow; if you have to go up it today/tonight, just follow the experts’ advice re: snow and ice driving — TAKE IT REAL SLOW — one wrong move and you’ll join the spinout crowd. Oh, and the side streets? Cringe.
Remember we have the West Seattle-area city and state traffic cams linked from our WS cams page. If you want to see highway conditions around the rest of the metro area, the state’s cameras are linked here; other Seattle city traffic cams can be found here. For weather conditions, forecast, and radar, this is a good page. Be careful out there!
We don’t talk much about the Fauntleroy ferry terminal here at WSB, but probably should, given that it brings hundreds if not thousands of people into (or at least through) West Seattle each day. There’s news today — some of its users might have to wait a bit longer for the next week or so because its biggest ferry had to be moved to another route, in a domino effect after a problem with one of the ferries on the Bainbridge route. (And we happened onto an unusual first-person account of how that problem happened.)
23 hours after this ventfest, we spotted a DOT crew literally digging into F-Way right around Fairmount Park. Our unscientific road test tonight revealed some improvement — to a point; once you pass that south-of-FP point, it’s rutsville again. Still. And with flaky fun to come!
Next Sunday will mark two months since the 47th/Admiral crash that killed Tatsuo Nakata. A conference next Tuesday at Harborview is planned in hopes of honoring his memory with strides toward pedestrian safety. A site visitor from “Safe Admiral” posted complete details today in a new comment on an old post; we’re mentioning it here to make sure you don’t miss it.
-E-mail tip says the Delridge lights (Brandon & Orchard) are finally back on. Will spin by post-dusk to see about the nearby businesses.
-Now that the power-restoration work is almost done, what about some of the other damage? We’ve seen city Transportation Department crews out taking care of some of the worst potholes. But what about the Thistle/Northrop sinkhole (which looks the same today as when we took the photo below, a couple days post-storm), which happened even before the wind hit full force last week? It’s still roped off but not so securely that a wayward child or animal couldn’t fall in. And how about the nearby stairs (built in 1955, according to the city photo archives), so well-known they’ve been written up for fitness fans? We’ll see if we can find anything out from the city; let us know if you live near there and you’ve got any scoop.
But first, one bit of advice from us … avoid the Cali/Fauntleroy intersection (M-Junction) if you can till you hear the power’s back (and we promise to keep checking) … as the evening drive home approaches, things are getting ugly down there, with ferry traffic, etc., and no stoplights to moderate. (Really wish they’d send a police officer to help direct traffic.)
Now, as for City Light … their outage-update page has some interesting new suggestions, such as “things to check if your neighbor has power but you don’t.” And both SCL and some WSB readers urge you to keep calling if your power’s still out, instead of assuming they’re on the case. 684-7400 is the outage-reporting number; 684-3000 is the number for reporting downed lines. City Light says a little over 5,000 “customers” are still out; sort of seems like they’re almost all here in WS.
-Tonight is the 47th/Admiral pedestrian-safety meeting.
-The White Center Food Bank told us they appreciate all the pre-Thanksgiving help and would be happy to take donations as they get ready for a pre-Christmas distribution this Wednesday. More turkeys! Here’s where to find the WCFB.
Update on The Junction’s new “raised crosswalks”: Junction Dave (see comments on our complaint post below) was right. The city not only was “on it,” sometime in the past 24 hours or so, they got crews out to put the first round of striping on the bumps. After “Molson” (also from comments on the same post below) reported a striping sighting last night, we checked it out this morning, and indeed, each side of each “raised crosswalk” has a pair of triangular stripes, pointing up and ahead.
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