Even if they haven’t come to your neighborhood (yet), you might have seen crews/trucks like this at work in various parts of West Seattle recently. They’re doing sewer-line maintenance without digging up the street, and it’ll continue all summer. After the crews spent two days in our Upper Fauntleroy neighborhood this week, we checked in with Seattle Public Utilities for an update on the overall project. What they’re doing is re-lining sewer pipes, with 60 sites in “southwest Seattle” as part of this stage of the. project, officially known as 2017 Small Diameter Lining Project Contract 1. “For this project, SPU contractor crews will rehabilitate about 4.57 miles of sewer mainline pipes that are 15” in diameter or smaller. Construction on these via cure-in-place pipe, non-excavation repairs takes only a few days or less to complete,” SPU spokesperson Sabrina Register explains, adding that some areas might take longer because of “multiple segments of pipe flagged for rehabilitation.” If they’re going to work in your area, you should get a door hanger and flyer; the ones distributed by contractor Michels in our neighborhood a few days ahead of two work sessions projected 12 hours of work (during which you’re supposed to limit plumbing use), but in both cases the crews were done by mid-afternoon, after about eight hours. Register says the project overall should be complete by mid-September.

6:43 PM: Thanks for the tips. The Seattle City Light map shows a big outage affecting parts of Riverview/Highland Park but mostly stretching further south, into Burien – 6,320 homes and businesses. It started just after 6:30 pm. No word on the cause yet.

7:22 PM: The Myers/Olson light is out, as are many in Burien. Remember that means an all-way stop.

7:26 PM: About a thousand customers – including most if not all of those who were affected in WS – are back on.

7:54 PM: The outage – now stretching southward from Top Hat into Burien – is blamed on “equipment failure.”

8:40 PM: Down to 657 customers. We’ll follow up tomorrow to get a more-specific description of what failed.

9:50 PM: Got the info tonight after all. SCL spokesperson Julie Moore says, “The outage was caused by a broken cross arm on a pole, which brought wires down. Once the cause was located, we were able to restore power to most customers (all but ~650 of the original 6,300). Crews will keep working until the rest of the customers are restored, which we’re estimating could take several hours.”

2:11 AM: City Light says everyone’s back on.

8:55 PM: Thanks to Susan for the tip: 10 homes are without power in Upper Morgan, since just before 8 pm. Seattle City Light‘s outage map doesn’t show the cause yet.

1:30 AM: Just checked the map again – it’s over.

Readers in The Junction identified that pole as epicenter of the two identical-footprint West Seattle Junction power outages this past Friday and Saturday – both taking out almost 500 businesses and homes for hours, both blamed on “bird/animal.” We followed up today with Seattle City Light spokesperson Julie Moore, who tells WSB: “It was indeed crows impacting the same spot two days in a row. We are pursuing installing avian protection at this location, which will require a scheduled outage to perform the work. I don’t have details on timing right now, but impacted customers will receive notification when the work is scheduled.” The City Light website explains avian protection and notes more than 200 known bird deaths a year – mostly crows.

7:20 PM: Power’s out in the West Seattle Junction again – same area, same number of customers as Friday’s outage, 491. That one was blamed on “bird/animal” – no word on this one yet, though one texter says it’s the “same pole.”

9:09 PM: This one too is attributed to that same type of cause.

12:25 AM: Power’s back.

(Pump Station 38 art concept by Sarah Thompson Moore)

10:44 AM: Back in March, we brought you an update (with video) on the art project planned for the Alki Pump Station 38 project, which also revealed a new design detail – a guardrail. At the time, the project website still said construction at the site in the 1400 block of Alki Avenue SW [map] was expected to begin this year. Today, an update from Seattle Public Utilities: The pump-station project is now expected to start early next year, with work lasting at least 9 months. They’re circulating a fact sheet and FAQ about the project:

And if those don’t answer whatever questions you might have, they’ve set up a survey to collect construction-related questions. SPU says the main reason for the project is to handle increased flows in the area; most of the work will be below-ground. We’re asking SPU about the latest projected cost; last year the utility told us it was budgeted at $1.2 million, with about $50,000 for the public-art component.

4:19 PM: SPU spokesperson Dylan King says the budget is still estimated at $1.2 million, but, “SPU is in the process of finalizing the design and will reevaluate the cost estimate once design is complete. The project team is also expecting increased budget needs for the artwork to accommodate the addition of the decorative panels and other art features included as part of the safety guardrail.” That rail, by the way, is expected to be 38.5 feet long and 49 inches high. The project is scheduled to go out to bid this fall.

If you’re anywhere near California/Andover and hearing jackhammering – that’s what Erich, who sent the photo, reports is going on. The crew told him they’re looking for a gas leak. SFD logs don’t show any gas-leak callouts in the past day, so it does not appear to be any kind of immediate threat. We’ll check with Puget Sound Energy later this morning.

5:05 PM: Thanks for the tip! That is a screenshot from the Seattle City Light outage map, which shows 31 customers without power near California/Dakota starting just after 4 pm. No official word yet what caused it.

6:44 PM: The SCL map now attributes the outage to “bird/animal”; commenter DEK says it was a crow.

9:40 PM: Restored since last time we checked.

Seattle Public Utilities is about to start a month-plus-long project to replace a water main in the Admiral area. SPU says the project – mostly on 39th SW between Grayson and Admiral – was originally supposed to start last year, but was delayed by both the pandemic and “contractor availability.” Here’s the official notice:

Work is expected to start “as soon as Wednesday.” SPU also tells us the work will have an impact on Admiral Way at some point, and they’ll send a separate notice when that gets close.

Thanks to the texter who reported brown water in the Belvidere area. First thing to do if that happens to you is, report it to 206-386-1800. That’s the 24-hour Seattle Public Utilities hotline. If there have already been other reports, they might be able to tell you what the problem is – say, a water break in your area. More often in weather like this, it is the Seattle Fire Department using/testing hydrants, and that’s what the texter was told. That stirs up sediment – basically, rust. West Seattle had so much trouble with this five years ago, a special flushing-the-lines project ensued. Back to what you can do: Today’s texter was told, don’t use the water for a few hours, then run cold water for 20 seconds or so and that should clear things up. Here’s more advice.

7:47 AM: Thanks for the tip, For the second time in three days, more than 100 customers in The Arroyos have lost power. This one, like the previous one, is affecting 109 customers, according to the City Light map.

3:07 PM: We asked SCL spokesperson Julie Moore about the outages. Her reply:

The cause of these outages is equipment failure, a fault in the underground direct buried cable, though not in the same locations. As you know, with direct buried cable, it can take longer to locate the issue than with overhead, which prolongs the outage. With the current outage, crews have located the fault and are working on repairs. …

This is the system in the Arroyo neighborhood where we have an ongoing project to replace the aging direct buried cable with an underground conduit system, which will improve reliability. Once conduit installation is complete, estimated in the second quarter of 2021, electrical crews will install the new underground cables. This work will take up to six months to complete and may require planned outages; City Light will notify customers in advance.

Given these recent outages, we’re planning to send a message to those who’ve signed up to receive project updates by email this afternoon.

That’s just been sent. And Moore also noted that, as happened in the previous outage, almost half the customers have their power back.

ADDED: In comments, Stacy says power was restored around 5:30 pm.

10:08 PM: Thanks to Colby for the tip: He reports an “explosion” preceded this 109-customer power outage in The Arroyos, at the southwesternmost edge of West Seattle. The City Light outage map already identifies it as a case of “equipment failure.”

1:08 AM: Still out. (For the record, the outage started at 9:40 pm.)

9:45 AM: After 12 hours, not fixed yet, per the map.

4:25 PM: And it continues.

7:31 PM: Colby points out that almost half the affected homes have their power back now; the SCL map says 60 are still out.

Seattle Public Utilities was scheduled to provide notification today to residents and businesses along SW Yancy between Avalon and 28th who will be affected by an upcoming water outage.

Those are the properties affected, as shown on the SPU Water Outages map – about two dozen customers. The shutoff is planned for 8 pm next Friday, March 26th, until 8 am the following morning. SPU spokesperson Sabrina Register says, “SPU is shutting down the water main and water service to customers as a safety measure to protect the City’s pipe while a private developer (Lotus Development Partners) conducts underground work associated with their construction project.” That’s the Transitional Resources supportive-housing project on Yancy.

P.S. The outage map’s list of upcoming planned outages also includes one next Thursday, 8 am-4 pm, affecting 59 customers in the vicinity of 3009 SW Myrtle.

10:37 AM: Thanks for the tips. Multiple people have messaged us about a Comcast outage in Arbor Heights; checking the outage map, both 98136 and 98146 are identified as having outages with “51 to 500” customers affected; there’s a smaller outage (50 or less) in 98106 too. We’re checking with the company to see if they can tell us more.

3:37 PM: A Comcast spokesperson says there are “no systemic issues.” But the outages are still showing on the map.

Thanks to Lorie for mentioning a power outage that affected some homes in Belvidere early this morning. It was over by the time we saw her note, which meant it was no longer shown on the Seattle City Light power-outage map, so we checked with SCL’s Julie Moore about the size and cause. She tells WSB, “Apparently tree limbs caused a transformer outage impacting eight customers. Our records show the outage lasted 4:16-6:37 a.m.”