Sun is shining — that means it’s time for pavement tearing up and fixing on the streets of Capitol Hill. Here are two projects coming up this weekend and next week, a look at the city’s powerful new weapon against potholes and an update on how City Hall is proposing we can continue paying for the Seattle Department of Transportation’s work.
Street work on East Pike, 1926 Originally uploaded by Seattle Municipal Archives
This weekend, crews will spend one day ripping the street surface up, the next, putting a new layer back down. Your commute to the Cuff and CHS advertiser Poco Wine Room will be affected!
Pine Street Paving, 13th to 15th Ave, July 17 – 18
SDOT paving crews plan to resurface Pine Street from 13th to 15th avenues this weekend, July 17 and 18, weather permitting. One lane will remain open in each direction and the sidewalks will remain open. Police Officers will be on hand to assist traffic. On Saturday the crews will grind off the old asphalt, working from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. On Sunday they will lay the new surface, working from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Meanwhile, next Tuesday and Wednesday, the stretch of 12th from Boom Noodle to the Maserati dealership will take its turn for an SDOT makeover.
12th Avenue Paving, July 20 and 21
Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) paving crews plan to resurface 12th Avenue from East Pike Street to East Madison Street on July 20 and 21, weather permitting. One lane will remain open in each direction, and sidewalks will remain open. On Tuesday, July 20, the crews plan to grind off the old surface, working from approximately 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. On Wednesday, July 21, they plan to apply the new asphalt surface, starting at 8 a.m. and finishing no later than 6 p.m.
This project is part of SDOT’s annual paving program and the Bridging the Gap transportation initiative approved by Seattle voters.
Neither project matches the scale of the road work on 10th Ave this summer.
SDOT also announced it has started a two-year test of a new solution for repairing potholes:
Always in search of making the most efficient use of our manpower and limited resources, this past week, SDOT began a two-year test on a new product and method of filling those pesky potholes in Seattle’s streets. The product is called an “injection patch” and requires a special truck developed just for applying fill with a tar and rock mixture. The truck heats, mixes and blends the patching material and then sprays it into pot hole. Only one person is needed to drive and carry out the work. The force with which this blend is sprayed totally fills a pot hole.
The test solution uses a fancy truck, pictured, and could replace the city’s current method of patching which requires, gasp, three humans. By the way, SDOT notes that the truck being used for the test was loaned to the city by its manufacturer. Because times are tough.
How tough? We reported last month that among all the cuts and economic challenges being faced by Seattle’s City Hall, SDOT held a special place as it was doubly damaged by budget shortfalls at both the city and state levels. Mayor Mike McGinn has a proposal for how to dig the department out of this mess:
To help fill an ongoing revenue shortfall at the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT), Mayor Mike McGinn is proposing an increase of five to 10 percent in the commercial parking tax, as well as a $20 vehicle-license fee. However, the city council has proposed using the same revenues to pay for improvements to the downtown waterfront instead, setting up a potential conflict during this year’s budget negotiations.
Without new revenue, McGinn said, “we’re not going to be able to keep up” with the need to maintain city streets. “We’re going to see our maintenance backlog start to grow again on our local streets.”
Really? These stretches? Maybe it’s because these streets are major throughfares, but there are some smaller streets on the Hill that are in DIRE need of repaving. Drive, or even worse, ride your bike, down 17th from Trader Joe’s toward E. Thomas and you can barely stay on the road… It just seems that these stretches mentioned aren’t really the worst off. At least my bus ride will be smoother!
Anyone that has ridden the 49 up on 10th knows the huge potholes by Aloha.
When one bus driver in particular drives over it people are actually thrown around on the bus.
Why can’t Seattle create more projects to create more jobs like FDR…?
My girlfriend and I have fondly named our stretch of road of 14th (from Safeway on John to Madison), the bumpy road. It has pot holes every few feet, and gravel that has been sitting around since the snow hit us in 2009. Of course the gravel not being the main issue, as the road is horrible to drive down.
Many streets could use the new paving over the ones they are doing.
I second that: 17th Ave looks like a mini mine field. It’s a nightmare driving my scoot or car or bike on that road. I think it should deserve more attention…and this is coming from someone who scoots/drives/bikes only once a week.
More than anything, I’d like to see sidewalk improvements all over the Hill. I have a personal interest in this as a pedestrian who has memorized stretches of crappy sidewalks not to crack my face on, but I hope it could encourage more pedestrian traffic in place of car traffic…but I guess we can’t have everything or, progress is just real slow to come by.