3:13 PM: If you use Avalon and/or 35th SW between Alaska and Avalon, here’s what you need to know about what’s happening next as road work continues:

The key points are on the map above. Below are SDOT’s newest update with the details, as well as some Q&A:

We are excavating and rebuilding the road on the west half SW Avalon Way in Zone B! Crews are continuing to work on the west side of SW Avalon Way from SW Yancy St to SW Genesee St (Zone B).

Crews are scheduled to begin work on the west side of SW Avalon Way from SW Manning St to SW Charlestown St (Zone A) on Monday, May 20. During construction, we will maintain access to SW Orleans St. SW Manning St will be closed starting Monday through the next few weeks. Local access will be maintained to the alley.

The west side of SW Genesee St at SW Avalon Way is scheduled to be closed starting this Wednesday, May 22 through Wednesday, May 29. This will allow crews to conduct utility work and pavement reconstruction. Similar to the previous closure on the east side of the intersection, crews will need to work across multiple lanes of traffic in the intersection for a few weeks. We will continue to maintain one lane in each direction on SW Avalon Way.

Crews will begin trenching to lay new water main on the east side of 35th Ave SW from SW Avalon Way to SW Alaska St (Zone E). We will maintain one lane of traffic in each direction on 35th Ave SW between Fauntleroy Way SW and SW Alaska St through approximately November 2019. See below for more information about what to expect.

SW Alaska St is scheduled to be closed to 35th Ave SW starting Saturday, May 18 at 5 AM and could open as soon as Monday, May 20 at 6 AM. This will allow crews to conduct maintenance on the water main.

Businesses are open! Please continue to visit businesses on 35th Ave SW and SW Avalon Way during construction. Pedestrian access will be maintained at all times.

Things we’ve heard from the community

Each week, we’ll plan to address a few common questions we’ve heard from your neighbors.

When will work on 35th Ave SW be completed? Can anything be done about commuting times?

Work on 35th Ave SW (Zone E) is anticipated to continue through November 2019. Work on 35th Ave SW takes more time as we are putting a new water main underneath the road and completely rebuilding the road. Our team has been monitoring left turns at the intersection of SW Avalon Way and 35th Ave SW after hearing about delays from the community. We are checking with our traffic operations group to see if we can adjust signal timing at the northbound left turn to see if this will help eliminate delays. Thank you for your patience as we strive to complete this work safely and efficiently!

Will my driveway be impacted?

In order for us to rebuild the road, we need to completely remove the current roadway and repour it with concrete or pave it with asphalt. We will need to temporarily close driveway access in order to pour or pave and allow the materials to cure. We will provide advance notice of this work. Please notify us if you need accessibility assistance.

What do I do if I have questions about the water main work and upcoming shutoffs?

If you have any questions about water main work, if there is an issue with your water, or your water is shut off without warning, you can call Seattle Public Utilities emergency line at 206-386-1800 24/7. SPU will notify you of any project related water shut offs at least a week in advance.

The overall project, expected to be complete next summer, is repaving/reconfiguring all of Avalon Way and repaving/rebuilding 35th SW between SW Alaska and Avalon (with water-main replacement) as well as repaving a block of SW Alaska west of 35th.

4:30 PM: Metro has published reroutes for Route 50, RapidRide C Line, and Water Taxi Shuttle 773 starting early tomorrow morning because of the weekend Alaska-at-35th closure.

After three weeks of work on Avalon, a new phase for the first segment of paving work starts tomorrow. Tonight we have the latest official update – followed by new information on traffic issues resulting from the 35th SW segment of the project that started this week. First, SDOT’s update:

We have wrapped up base paving on the east half SW Avalon Way! Tomorrow, May 10, we plan to move traffic to the east side of SW Avalon Way as we shift work to the west side of SW Avalon Way from SW Genesee St to SW Yancy St (Zone B). As part of this work, we will be demolishing the west side of SW Avalon Way all the way to the centerline.

Starting Friday, May 10, we plan to close the west side of the intersection of SW Avalon Way and SW Genesee St to conduct utility work and pavement reconstruction. Similar to the previous closure on the east side of the intersection, crews will need to work across multiple lanes of traffic in the intersection for a few weeks.

Potholing has begun on 35th Ave SW from SW Avalon Way to SW Alaska St (Zone E) to prepare for water main work. We will maintain one lane of traffic in each direction on 35th Ave SW between Fauntleroy Way SW and SW Alaska St through approximately November 2019. See below for more information about what to expect.

Heads up for future travel: SW Alaska will be closed to 35th Ave SW from Saturday, May 18 to Sunday, May 19. This will allow crews to conduct maintenance on the water main.

Businesses are open! Please continue to visit businesses on 35th Ave SW and SW Avalon Way during construction. Pedestrian access will be maintained at all times.

Things we’ve heard from the community

Each week, we’ll plan to address a few common questions we’ve heard from your neighbors.

Where will my bus stop be?

We’re working with King County Metro (Metro) to coordinate temporary bus service reroutes and stop relocations during construction. On Metro’s website, you can find more information about construction reroutes and sign up for Metro Transit alerts. If a stop is going to be relocated, Metro will post signs along the corridor.

(WSB editor’s note: Metro’s “alerts” webpage still does not include this informatinn. We called this to Metro’s attention yesterday and again today.)

It’s difficult to bike along the corridor

We recognize that construction makes biking along the corridor difficult, especially when bike and vehicle traffic merge. We also recognize that the geography of the area makes it difficult to find alternatives. We will continuing to assess the safety of people biking through our work zone and work with West Seattle Bike Connections to identify future alternative routes during construction.

How long construction will last:

Construction in Zone B is anticipated to wrap up in mid-June. Work in Zone E is anticipated to continue through November. Thank you for your patience as we strive to complete this work safely and efficiently!

Also addressed by SDOT today – a resident’s concern about the 35th SW constraints and backups resulting in cut-throughs on narrow nearby side-streets south of SW Alaska. Kevin cc’d us on his original note and SDOT included us in today’s reply:

Thanks for your email and letting us know about the cut-through traffic on 36th Ave SW and 37th Ave SW. We’ve included details below about a few changes we’ve made to signage onsite today. In addition, we’ve also included a few options that we can offer for your specific side streets if cut-through traffic continues to be an issue.

Signage adjustments on 35th Ave SW
Crews evaluated signage onsite this morning to ensure the messaging on the boards and the closure was as clear to people driving as possible.

(WSB photo – we were headed SB; the messaging faces NB traffic)

They added a message board about the closure at 35th Ave SW and SW Myrtle St in center-turn lane, and kept the current message boards in place at SW Snoqualmie St and SW Alaska St. We will continue to evaluate traffic and the best locations for these message boards as the closure continues.

Additional mitigation options

We are looking into speed mitigation tools and will get back to you soon.

We will be adding a note to our email updates to let people driving that we have heard from neighbors about speeding and concerns around safety on side streets. Particularly as we head into sunny, warmer weather, we’ll highlight a reminder to slow down and watch for people biking, people walking, and kids playing and walking to school.

In addition, if you do not already have vision zero signs for your street, we would be happy to bring you some reminding people driving through that “20 is plenty.”

The project team’s contact info is on the right sidebar of this page.

If you missed the advance alerts and haven’t been through the area yet today, the photo taken a short time ago is your reminder that the Avalon/35th/Alaska project has now added a zone to the first phase of work – 35th SW between Avalon and Alaska. As noted in our April preview, this work will replace a water main as well as completely rebuilding the road, and it could last up to seven months. It was very slow going both ways when we went through around 4 pm, with one lane each way as shown above. Work continues on Avalon, too. (SDOT’s latest full project update is here.)

One update today from SDOT since the end-of-week update on the Avalon/35th project:

As you plan for your Monday morning commute, we wanted to send a brief update to let you know that the east side of the intersection of SW Avalon Way and SW Genesee St will remain closed through Monday evening, May 6.

Extending the closure allows us to complete base paving of the intersection and SPU crews to complete the remaining emergency repairs on the water main before reopening the intersection to traffic.

The update we published last night, which includes SDOT responses to questions we asked after various problems were reported this past week, is here.