Admiral Way Asphalt Failing, Already?

[Mike D.]

Motoring up Admiral Way from the Bridge, I have noticed that there are areas of the asphalt road surface that are cracking apart and even a few areas where potholes are forming. I am not referring to areas where in street utility work was done and patched.

Wasn’t Admiral Way in this section completely resurfaced in August 2007? If so, it hasn’t even been two years and the material/application is failing? Something seems very, very wrong here.

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[rockergirl]

Guess you’ll have to live with ‘POT HOLE PATCHES” like we all in the south end of West Seattle do. I’ve been waiting for 35th, fauntleroy, delridge and beach drive in the south end to be repaved for years and it does’nt look like much is going to get done anytime soon on these roads. Seriously though the roads around here recently redone or not are such a joke and the PATCHES they do last about a month if were lucky.

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[miws]

Mike D, Yes it was, just over 1 1/2 years ago. https://westseattleblog.com/blog/?p=2696#comments

I remember when the major repave of I-35 was was done 6-ish years ago. Just above Alaska Street, on northbound 35th, (don’t remember which lane, not that it matters) somebody, I think I remember, at the time it being SDOT, or their contractor that had done the project, cutting a rectangle out of the newly laid blacktop. From my perspective from the parking strip, it looked like it just went down to the roadbed, as opposed to being a “hole” for access to utilities.

Either way, it was pretty stupid in my unprofessional opinion, and I wondered how long the “patch-up” would last.

I also wondered in more recent times, that if that was the spot that was referred to, here on WSB, as the hole that could swallow a car. (IIRC, someone had come up with a clever name for it!)

Mike S.

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[Mike D.]

rockergirl – Just to be clear, I don’t live in the Admiral area of WS, our family is in the Delridge District. I just happened to be traveling on Admiral Way to pick up some groceries at PCC. I share your frustration with the condition of city streets. Mostly I am trying to figure out how it is that a street that was recently repaved with asphalt is already failing and will Gary Merlino Construction or anyone else be held accountable? This is one of the things that freaks me out about not having newspapers around that will do investigative reporting. The WSB is obviously great, but I don’t know if they have the time and or staff to do the job of investigative work on the level that is required to expose corruption or negligence in public works projects.

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[Julie]

I remember an article from Scientific American in–I think–the 1980s comparing road technology in Europe with that in the US. It pointed out that the US funding system favors low bidders, as opposed to high quality, if I remember correctly.

We get what we pay for.

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[WSB]

We’re adding contributors. And we do long form even as it is (see California Place Park, Delridge wading pool inequity, among others), as well as short form. Newspapers unfortunately are currently wasting some of their dwindling resources trying to replicate what we and other neighborhood-level sites are doing in terms of breaking “hyperlocal” news, when I totally agree they should be focusing on what they can do best – deeper looks into the issues. But I digress. I’ll start checking on this one too.

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[WSB]

Notable that (and I’m sure we reported it at the time) resealing work was done on the stretch last year:

http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/california.htm

a year after the original work was theoretically finished. Don’t know if this is standard. Will go look at the surface tomorrow, either before or after the mayor’s event at SWYFS on Delridge (which will be interesting since now he’ll likely be questioned about Kerlikowske, with that announcement expected, finally, today).

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[Mike D.]

Thanks WSB, appreciate any information you can discover.

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[cjboffoli]

Where I come from back in New England, road surfaces fail with regularity, not due to negligence but to the harsh winter conditions. Before assuming incompetence on the part of the contractors it is worth considering the effects of the unusually harsh winter we’re coming out of and whether or not there is something unique about the geology of that area that makes it a challenge to keep it smoothly paved.

.

As to the issue of investigative reporting, while the staff of the WSB is more than capable of journalism of this caliber the question is whether or not the hyper-local “new media” has the juice. One of the few advantages I can see in old media is their capacity to protect themselves from lawsuits brought by powerful entities. Woodward and Bernstein would never have been able to crack the Watergate story and bring down an administration if they hadn’t had the power of the Washington Post behind them.

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[WSB]

We have spectacular legal help and have already used it in ways big and small. Just in case anybody wonders about that point. That includes fighting for access to information that one large government entity thought we shouldn’t have the right to publish.

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[Lex]

Folks you do know that they can’t repair it if you don’t continue to report it. I’ve always had success but submitting requests at http://www.seattle.gov/transportation/potholes/. the more they have to come out and fix it perhaps they will do some work that will last long term.

we pay hefty taxes in this city so we have every right to demand that its used the way we want it to be used. Also recommend contacting your city council members.

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[WSB]

Having driven the entirety of Admiral both ways just now from west of California to The Bridge, and then checking the city project history again … I do not believe that stretch was part of the repaving work. All indications – unless there was paving done a year or two earlier – is that the paving work stopped at Olga. Which would make sense given the road conditions I observed – fine shape from the viewpoint westward, but then, as Mike noted, a little more rutty as you head down the hill.

They closed Admiral at the time at the bottom of the hill because that’s the last point you could be diverted, heading north/westbound, before the Olga end of the construction zone, but the paving itself started at Olga (the pedestrian light by the viewpoint).

http://www.seattle.gov/Transportation/california.htm

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