(Image: SDOT)
The Seattle Department of Transportation is nearing the end of its extensive revamp of the Madison corridor to complete the new RapidRide G bus line. With major asphalt and sidewalk work completed this month, the focus has shifted to final touches.
CHS reported here on the plans to open the line in September after three years of construction. The G Line is planned to operate 23 hours a day, from 5:00 AM to 4:00 AM between 1st Ave downtown and MLK Jr Way in Madison Valley with stops across First Hill and Capitol Hill along the way.
Over the next two months, SDOT says crews will address remaining areas needing attention and upgrades. These finishing touches include painting, road marking, new landscaping, signal and lighting upgrades, bus shelter and station construction, and location-specific roadway and sidewalk work.
A shelter in place (Image: SDOT)
Landscaping work, which began in the spring, will continue throughout the summer. SDOT aims to plant 108 new trees before the RapidRide G service begins, surpassing the 62 trees removed during construction. An additional 16 trees will be planted, fulfilling the city’s 2-to-1 removal requirement.
Roadway painting is ongoing, with new crosswalks, bike lanes, lines, stop bars, and symbols being added. This work primarily occurs at night in Downtown, First Hill, and Capitol Hill, with increased activity expected in the last two weeks of July. Painting will also continue in Madison Valley on Martin Luther King Jr. Way and at the intersection with E Madison St.
Bus shelter construction and installation are entering their next phase. Most shelters are nearing completion, and crews will add finishing touches like handrails, bumpers, glass, and paint in July. Many shelters will feature real-time information systems and off-board payment readers, requiring electrical connections that crews will install this summer.
While most signal and lighting work is complete, a few areas still require attention. Crews are commissioning new signals at Madison and Broadway and Madison and 19th Ave. Inspections, electrical connections, and commissioning work remain for some new lighting features. SDOT expects to finish all lighting work before September.
Future layover plans
Construction on the future RapidRide G Layover Facility at Harrison and MLK in Madison Valley will be a future project. Preliminary work on the area will be wrapped up this month. The facility will eventually provide a space for bus operators to take breaks, helping to keep buses on schedule and reduce traffic congestion along the route.
In June, SDOT completed significant work, including paving, planting shrubs, forming and pouring concrete curbing and sidewalks, painting lane lines and crosswalk markings, and installing signal heads, push buttons, and detector loops.
Looking ahead to next month, SDOT says it will continue signal upgrades, new street lighting installations, and bus shelter installations. Temporary signals and lighting will be removed as the new ones are completed. Daytime work is expected from 7 AM to 5 PM, Monday through Friday, with some night and weekend work. SDOT advises following posted signs and detours for safe access through construction zones.
Visit seattle.gov/madisonbusrapidtransit for updates.
(Image: SDOT)
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Boondoggle. Time is getting ripe for folk to recognize RapidRide routes are appropriate from suburbs to city. Normal buses work just fine within the close-in neighborhoods.
Ahem… Driver…ahem
That’s simply not true. Busses routinely get trapped in urban traffic, causing them to be slow and unreliable. Which in turn causes folks to ditch the bus for a car, causing more traffic. Busses work best when you give them their own lanes. As someone who lives in Capitol Hill and works downtown, I can not not wait for the G to open. It will make getting to work/the waterfront quicker and easier. Additionally, as a person who lives in Seattle and doesn’t venture out to burbs that often, I would like to see better bus service within the city.
The signal and lane management on these new 23rd Ave and Madison are maddening for car drivers. Forbidden left turns and turn-on-reds (some out of no reason), poorly timed lights that create traffic jams on a Sunday afternoon, stupid single lane while there are space for 2 lanes so that one left/right turning car will block 20 cars behind… It’s all very brain dead stuff.
I bet some SDOT traffic engineers who just graduated from their community college and proclaimed “let’s be more like Paris!”… while we have very different road, pedestrian and traffic patterns from an European city.
All sounds perfect to me. Fewer car drivers in the densest part of our city is a feature not a bug for those of us who actually live here (and walk and take transit on Madison). If you want speeding roads, feel free to live in Bothell.
The problem is you try forcing people that way then let criminals run amok on the bus to the point that essentially every air and surface sample is covered in meth and fentynal. Then you sniff your own farts about being so progressive and world class. Riding a bike isnt much better since most of the roads are disintegrating and covered in filth, making riding more dangerous than it should be.
The bus that the G is replacing is one of the cleanest and quietest routes I’ve ridden, and I used to commute on the 7 all the way from Columbia City. Quit being dramatic.
No one said anything about wanting speeding roads… It’s all about efficiency. Transportation network needs to move as many people, cars, pedestrian, bikes as efficiently as possible… To save everyone’s time.
But everything has to be about you isn’t it?
The fallacy of a self-centered worldview is… let’s say you finally get to buy a car some day, you will start to sing a completely different tune because you think the City needs to serve you. While the rest of us think the City needs to serve everyone.
I’m super happy with the changes to 23rd. The three-lane section is much safer to cross for walkers and traffic moves more slowly. More road diets please! I’m also really looking forward to riding the rapidride on Madison. Thanks SDOT!
I’ll take the calmer roads. Closer to Paris is still closer to Paris, even if there’s still a ways to go.
Does anybody know if the 2 and the 12 will use the bus lanes eventually where the lines overlap with the G? Is the 12 going to stick around?