When the mayor introduced his transportation-levy proposal Thursday (WSB coverage here), that opened a three-week period for feedback to further shape it before he formally sends it to the City Council. The councilmember who will lead the council’s review, District 1’s Rob Saka, is asking for your opinions too, in a survey. It’s short, asking you to rank 10 potential spending areas in the order you’d want to see them prioritized – and also asking if you have a priority you don’t see on the list. Here’s where to find Councilmember Saka’s survey.

(Added: Seattle Channel video)

3:33 PM: Mayor Bruce Harrell has just debuted the first draft of his proposed transportation-levy renewal. The current Levy to Move Seattle is expiring after nine years and $930 million, covering 30 percent of the city’s transportation budget; the new levy would run for the next eight years, raising $1.35 billion. Harrell was clear that this is “the start of a discussion” – as with the expiring levy, this one will likely go through some changes before a final version is sent to the November ballot. The summary of the levy says, “The proposed levy would cost the median Seattle homeowner about $36 per month, approximately $12 more per month than the current levy.” (A current “median home” is considered to be valued at $866,000.)

Here’s the full draft proposal. It includes a few West Seattle specifics as example projects the levy could/would fund:

• Fauntleroy Way SW — Paving to keep roadway functional during light rail station construction and support future improvements.

• 35th Ave SW: SW Morgan St to SW Alaska St — Street reconstruction with a corridor safety analysis and evaluation of transit improvements. Includes sidewalk repair, crossing improvements, and evaluation of bike routes.

• Olson Pl SW / 1st Ave S: 2nd Ave SW to SW Cloverdale St — Street reconstruction with a widened sidewalk or trail and treatments to keep vehicles from skidding on wet pavement.

As mentioned in the Fauntleroy description above, some of this would synergize with the upcoming Sound Transit light-rail expansion to West Seattle (which is projected to open just as this new levy expires at the end of 2032), including “connections” for the West Seattle Junction station, and ST’s interim CEO Goran Sparrman (who is also a former SDOT director) spoke at the unveiling. (added) The 35th SW project is also notable, as the corridor went through rechannelization and other changes south of Morgan in the 2010s before the idea of an overhaul north of Morgan was shelved in 2018 (with some spot changes then made, such as the Graham crossing and the Camp Long light).

WHAT’S NEXT: You have three weeks – until April 26 – to offer feedback to shape the final levy proposal the mayor sends to the City Council in May; go here to do that. The final version of the levy is expected to go to voters this November.

ADDED 5:48 PM: District 1 Councilmember Rob Saka, who chairs the Transportation Committee and will lead the council review of the levy proposal, sent this statement:

This Transportation Levy is a once-in-a-decade chance to build a safer, better connected and more reliable Seattle.

Over my first 100 days in office, I have helped fill potholes with road maintenance crews, walked along city streets in desperate need of sidewalks, and surveyed the state of Seattle’s bridges. At every turn, I saw SDOT employees hard at work with limited resources doing everything they can with to keep our city safe. Now, it’s time for us elected leaders to step up and make sure they have everything they need to do their jobs better, faster, and more effectively.

I appreciate Mayor Harrell’s work on this framework for the levy and see we are in alignment on many key issues. The Council has a lot of hard work ahead of it to review and improve upon this proposal. I am ready and eager to lead that collaborative effort.

(Video is coded to start with State of Bridges briefing; if it doesn’t, go to 1 hour, 38 minutes into the meeting)
SDOT‘s “State of the Bridges” briefing – another reason we went downtown for the Seattle City Council’s Transportation Committee meeting on Tuesday (besides this) – was an informational overview rather than a bridge-by-bridge update, and it was somewhat rushed because the preceding item, a discussion of the Seattle Transportation Plan, had run long.

And one critical component was missing – the bridge-asset management plan called for in the bridge audit requested by the former committee chair Alex Pedersen during the West Seattle Bridge closure. Pedersen noted in a post before leaving office in December that it’s troubling the new transportation levy proposal is being developed without this “foundational document”:

SDOT is still behind on completing its Bridge Asset Management Plan and yet asset management plans should be foundational documents driving (the investment) for the next transportation capital package, as the 9-year, $930 million “Move Seattle” levy expires at the end of 2024.

Pedersen’s observation was made three months ago, and the plan’s not done yet, though the next levy proposal is expected to be made public this spring. The bridge asset plan’s current status was listed as “pending/drafting” in Tuesday’s briefing led by SDOT’s chief infrastructure engineer Elizabeth Sheldon, who said this is what it will include.

The list of “assets” is long: Sheldon’s briefing (see the full slide deck here) noted that the city’s portfolio of roadway structures includes 135 bridges and almost 500 stairways. The city also operates the South Park Bridge, though King County owns it. She also said that Seattle bridges are an average of 60 years old, while the national average bridge age is 47. Only a third of Seattle bridges are in good condition, and changing that, she said, would cost a lot.

No specific numbers, but Councilmember Dan Strauss suggested it sounded dire enough that the city perhaps should consider a levy just to address its bridges. Those currently considered to be in “fair” condition, he said, represented a “watch list,” recalling that “the West Seattle Bridge moved from fair to poor in the span of a week.”

For his part, committee chair and District 1 Councilmember Rob Saka said bridges are “near and dear” to him and that he appreciates “geeking out” on this type of information. He added that he has a field visit to the West Seattle low bridge scheduled toward the end of the month.

(WSB photos/video)

If you’re going to be The King of Potholes, you might as well go get a firsthand look at your kingdom. That’s what District 1 City Councilmember Rob Saka did this morning, joining an SDOT “Pothole Rangers“ crew at work in South Park and West Seattle. We heard him mention the plan during yesterday’s meeting of the Transportation Committee, which he chairs, so we contacted his staff and arranged to meet up at his first stop.

In this case, the Pothole Rangers had a fairly deep rut to deal with immediately south of the city transfer station in west South Park – an industrial area heavily traveled by trucks. Saka put on a hard hat and vest and joined the crew.

The rain stopped just in time, but SDOT’s crew told us they work in every kind of weather except snow/ice. So first task was to dry out this pothole best as they could.

Then came the application of “tack,” to which the asphalt fill would adhere. And finally the asphalt itself, with which the councilmember assisted:

Here’s the “after” view, and how the process concluded:

As recently noted here, SDOT crews – which are based regionally, including one assigned to West Seattle – filled more than 25,000 potholes around the city last year. And there’s always more waiting to be filled – here’s a screengrab from the map of reported-and-waiting potholes:

(Go here for options on how to report one.) Saka told us this is just the first visit he plans to make to a variety of frontline crews – he’ll be visiting bridge-maintenance workers too. He also reiterated that he’s well aware the underlying cause of potholes needs to be addressed too – streets in desperate need of repaving. The next transportation levy is expected to address that, though Saka said he hasn’t been involved yet in specific project lists, so he doesn’t know whether, for example, SW Roxbury (which was supposed to be repaved with Levy to Move Seattle money, then got shelved) will be addressed.

The new-era City Council‘s first committee meeting happened this past week, when the Transportation Committee – chaired by District 1 Councilmember Rob Saka – convened on Tuesday morning. Before the meeting moved into public comment and presentations, Saka said his focuses will be on “preserving and maintaining our infrastructure, with a heavy focus on bridges and streets, in hopes, he said, no other community has to go through anything like the 2 1/2-year West Seattle Bridge closure. He said his other priorities will be the “safety and comfort of pedestrians,” improved transit-rider experience, climate-related issues (particularly increased electrification of transportation), equity, and the size/scope of the next transportation-funding measure.

Of the two introductory presentations made by SDOT, the one of widest interest was an explanation of the department itself, led by director Greg Spotts, who noted he’s had the job for 17 months now. Spotts said he’d done some reorganizing of SDOT management to better handle priorities. For example, toward Saka’s top priority, Spotts said Elizabeth Sheldon serves as chief infrastructure engineer. Venu Nemani, previously chief traffic engineer, is chief transportation safety officer. Shortly after arriving, Spotts noted, he’d ordered a “top to bottom” review of Vision Zero – in light of the fact that traffic deaths and serious injuries were not declining – and he said there’ll be an implementation plan in the next several months. (As an aside, he said he does not own a car.) He talked about the Seattle Transportation Plan, pulling together many separate predecessors (bicycle plan, freight plan, transit plan, etc.), and said upcoming documents will include a Bridge Asset Management Plan. He briefly ran through some of what is on SDOT’s schedule for the year ahead, including bridge seismic upgrades (in West Seattle that includes the Delridge/Oregon overpass and the Admiral Way bridges over Fairmount Ravine).

His presentation included many stats – from 500 cameras in the traffic-control center downtown, to 14,000 openings per year for the city-owned movable bridges, including the West Seattle low bridge. (Spotts noted that shipments requiring those openings include a lot of food destined for Alaska.) Another stat of interest: There are about half a million street parking spaces in the city, but “we only charge for about 12,000 of them.”

One more note of West Seattle interest – Spotts briefly mentioned the city’s involvement with Sound Transit for the West Seattle and Ballard extensions. That group, he said, also reports to Sheldon, the chief infrastructure engineer.

The presentation also touched on the SDOT budget and the “83 sources of funding” that feed into it, “more than most city departments.”

Eventually Saka brought it back to his interest in pothole-filling as a symbol of what the city can do for its residents; not only does he want to be “the king of potholes,” but he also declared his fellow committee members “pothole royalty” too, though in a more serious vein, he suggested the “underlying causes” of potholes should be examined and addressed too.

You can watch the meeting in the Seattle Channel video above, and see the “introduction to SDOT” slides here. In addition to chairing the Transportation Committee, Councilmember Saka is vice chair of the Public Safety Committee, which will meet at 9:30 am Tuesday (February 13) for the first time this year; as we previously noted, all three of the city’s public-safety chiefs (CARE’s Amy Smith, SFD’s Harold Scoggins, SPD’s Adrian Diaz) are on the agenda to provide overviews of their departments.

The new City Council starts committee meetings tomorrow (Tuesday, February 6). First up: The Transportation Committee, chaired by District 1 Councilmember Rob Saka of West Seattle. When his committee meets at 9:30 am, the agenda includes public comment, an “Introduction to SDOT” (here’s the slide deck), and an “Introduction to Term Permits and Street Vacations” (here’s that slide deck). See the agenda for information on how to participate in the public-comment period, in person at City Hall or via phone; if you just want to watch the meeting, it’ll be live via Seattle Channel. You can look ahead to other council-committee meetings by checking this page, which links agendas once they’re available.