Results tagged “construction”

We mentioned a few days ago that WSDOT is doing construction on southbound I-5 this weekend, and that a lane will be closed from Yale to Union Street from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday. But we want to warn you that northbound traffic won't be all giggles and schadenfreude--they're keeping the express lanes open southbound all day to help with the lane closure, so northbound is gonna be molasses in January, too. Plus, Seahawks fans, getting near Qwest Field is just part of the fun: "WSDOT is building a bridge over the railroad tracks on S. Royal Brougham Way and a new off-ramp from I-90 and I-5 to S. Atlantic Street/Edgar Martinez Drive S. Construction is also under way on nearby city of Seattle projects and on WSDOT’s Alaskan Way Viaduct Electrical Line Relocation project. Fans should expect construction-related lane, parking and pedestrian access restrictions related to these projects south of Qwest Field."

The Seattle Times has broken a story about a Port of Seattle construction oopsie that has cost $200,000 and may eventually cost $1 million. Puts that $40,000 bonus for Carrasco for doing things right in a new light, doesn't it? "Clearly the contractor should've built the trench at 2.52 inches and it's 2.5," said newish Port Commission President Bill Bryant, proving that it doesn't make much difference who you vote for for Port Commissioner, you're still going to be faced with someone saying really weird things after things go awry. The Port requested a trench's width to the hundredths of an inch? We're of the mind that anything wider than the cable would have been fine. (PS to Bob Young: Is Tay Yoshitani on vacation? Why no statement from the Port CEO?)

• Monday evening, Seattle police discovered an unidentified human body that had drowned in Lake Washington and washed ashore the beach of Lake Cottage Park.
• Good news for ORCA card holders: Seattle Transit Blog says the Seattle Streetcar will be adding ORCA readers to stations starting next year.

• The bus tunnel shut down at 7:10 a.m. this morning for about 20 minutes, thanks to an automated (and false) alarm--for the third time in six months. Funnily enough, we think every time has been during morning rush hour, too.
• Publicola's newest addition, Erica Barnett, broke the news to Seattle taxpayers that we've paid over $43,000 since 2006 to send the City Council's Jan Drago to China, India, Iceland, the United Arab Emirates, and Finland.

"Baby with hard hat, 1959" by Seattle Municipal Archives, from the Seattlest Flickr Pool.

We took the I-5 Mercer Street/Seattle Center exit the other night and while waiting for the light to change, we noticed ten--a seemingly abnormal amount--construction cranes littering the South Lake Union neighborhood. (Yes, some probably dedicated to building the new Amazon HQ.)

"New Hive @ Night" by Ray Hutchinson, plucked from our Flickr pool

Agreed, traffic sucks. But when you're driving alone, at what point do you make the (illegal, mind you) decision to cross the solid white line and make a quick run into the 3+ person HOV lane? Tsk, tsk. We know you're out there. We can see you. We also curse and shake our fist at you. It's happening more and more. HOV cheaters are breezing by, as the rest of us law abiding drivers are stuck in the onslaught of 520 traffic congestion, brought on by the construction chaos of I-90. Just remember, cheaters, what comes around goes around and those HOV lanes violations will set you back $124.

• We got us some more swine flu. One case turned deadly in Washington. While the CDC reported that more cases were confirmed, bringing us to a grand total of 83. Oh joy, King County now has a total of 56 confirmed cases.
• A slew of freak accidents: Small helicopter crash near Tacoma, bumps and bruises for the two aboard; Farm tractor starts up unexpectedly killing a Deer Park man as it drove over his chest; A Navy SEAL died in training near Keyport, Wash.
• In the forever-long Amanda Knox case, a footprint expert (those exist?) confirmed that the bloody footprint on a bathroom rug belonged to her ex-boyfriend.

• Seattle's newest main stream celebrity: Bacon Salt. The bacon-loving boys reached the pinnacle of fame and product placement, on today's episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show.
• Keep an eye on the road, because this weekend will be filled with road cones and construction delays.
• We scream, you scream, everyone screams for ice cream--especially for Molly Moon's ice cream. Capitol Hill's newest--and most indulgent--resident opens its doors on Saturday.

Construction projects are synonymous with spring, and this season it is no different, as the Pike Place Market's $73-million, much-needed renovation begins to get underway. The first phase of projects will start with the the foul-smelling, long-winded Hillclimb entrance, a stairwell off Western Avenue. Now, before you start complaining about cranes and construction eyesores, the Market is taking a lesson from the blueprints of Bob the Builder and asking the public to "Name That Crane." What better way to deal with the effects of a soon-to-be erected, 150-foot crane inhabiting the city's skyline for nearly a year, other than humanizing construction equipment. Brilliant. Deadline to submit names, June 1, 2009.

How convenient! The Washington State Department of Transportation now has a map where you can see exactly where our federal stimulus money will be improving the state's highways and byways. The projects are concentrated, as expected, along I-5 and I-90, with a spattering up by Spokane and a few down towards Yakima. Here's the Washington Jobs Now project list; so far, five of the stimulus projects are at "Gone To Ad" status, whatever that means.

Construction alert! We've got it all right here.

Up in Kenmore, a woman awoke to a giant, 15 foot sinkhole in her driveway this morning. When unusual seemingly natural phenomena occur at Seattlest HQ, our kneejerk response is to think back over our possible sins of the last 24 hours in case we managed to unknowingly aggravate the pantheon. However, in this case, it looks like the sinkhole was caused not by malicious pavement sprites but by a tunnel boring machine chipping away at the earth 150 feet below Pauline Chihara's driveway. The machine is part of King County's Brightwater sewage water treatment project. Brightwater officials are saying something about a "migrating void" and promising to investigate further, lest more upright county citizens find unpleasant pits of hell on their property as the project continues.

The corner of Denny and Dexter represents the latest outbreak in an epidemic of uninspired developments destined to pollute our landscape for generations.

The slurry hits the fan tonight on southbound I-5 under the Convention Center, we're told by WSDOT Twitter. Lanes are being closed while the broken, cracked, 40-year-old concrete is being fixed. WSDOT, break it down:
• Contractor crews will begin closing the southbound lanes of I-5 at Stewart Street at 8 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 13. Three out of five lanes will be closed by 11 p.m.
• The Union Street off-ramp and Howell Street on-ramp will also be closed. Detour signs are in place. You can find detour maps here.
• The I-5 express lanes will remain open in the southbound direction all weekend so drivers can get to downtown Seattle. We want to remind drivers that the Pike/Pine and 5th/Columbia exits are HOV only. Mercer Street, Stewart Street and through traffic is for all drivers.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) will be providing a huge chunk of financial support for Seattle's light-rail project--to the tune of $813 million. That's about 40% of the total cost, says the math-savvy P-I this morning. Doesn't sound like the extra federal funding, an increase from initial promises, will make the work go any faster; we're still looking at 2016 as a finish date for the main light-rail route from downtown to the UW. Reading all the details about tunneling in different kinds of soil is exciting, though, and reminds us that this is really happening. We're really getting light-rail! 2016 is only seven Christmases away!

This morning we were down at the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce breakfast and regional economic forecast discussion, which opened with chair Tayloe Washburn being emotionally overcome while talking about how strapped food banks are for donations. (At which point we sorely regretted suggesting the chamber was "populated largely by jaw-dangling idiots," and wished we'd stuck to the rule of vilifying awful ideas rather than the people whose heads they're stinking up.)

Seattle pedestrians and bikers are fed up with it too. Over 70 Seattle sidewalks are closed due to private construction. A recently completed audit on sidewalk closures and pedestrian access concluded that the city wasn't doing enough to help pedestrians navigate the ever-changing sidewalk closures. In hopes of changing that, the audit proposes that construction projects be coordinated to avoid conflicting closures and that the city begin enforcing rules about pedestrian violations of sidewalk closures. Since the rising cost of gas makes walking more of a necessity for some of us than a leisure activity, we hope the sidewalk situation gets sorted out soon.

There are fewer worse feelings in the world than missing a flight thanks to a traffic jam on the way to the airport. Believe us, we've been there...on Thanksgiving weekend. Missing a flight due to a traffic jam you could avoid or plan for? We simply won't allow that for our dear readers. So if any of you are heading to Sea-Tac, prepare for an even larger traffic clusterfuck than usual. Due to light rail construction, there will be only one lane to the arrivals area, the northern entrance to the parking garage will be closed, and there is a detour from the cell phone waiting lot. So basically, whether you are coming, going, or just picking someone up, schedule a little extra time for your trip to Sea-Tac.

Construction on the Magnolia/Interbay Whole Foods will be delayed for up to a year thanks to the shaky economy and "cash flow problems" for the fancy grocery chain, reports Magnolia Voice. In four or five weeks the site's workers will pack up and head out, leaving behind a mostly-finished exoskeleton of what will ultimately be a 12,000 sq. ft. smaller grocery store than planned. The store was slated to open in three months, just in time for Magnolites to order conveniently pre-packaged and portioned organic Thanksgiving dinners. What a shame!

We just had to run down to SeaTac, and along the way lost count of the amount of road repair and construction projects going on. August is the Pacific Northwest's official Road Repair Month, on account of its stretches of good weather, and transportation crews work around the clock to get the most paving done possible. SeaTac is always under construction, so nothing new there, but Mercer has a lane closure or two, which ought to make forehead veins bulge a little during hot afternoon rush hours. Here's a map of road construction projects in and around Seattle which will serve mainly to convince you that you're screwed--you can nowhere at no time on no street without running into orange cones and people wearing safety vests doing that "my arm is a tipped over metronome" mime. It's hot out there and your exhaust stinks, so the least you can do is give 'em a brake.

"Angular Shadows" by Ray Tracing

Photo by Grundlepuck from the Seattlest Flickr pool

Worried about rising material costs, the Seattle school district has sped ahead with construction of new schools without waiting to get input from parents.

Clubs aren't taverns; they don't grow finer with age. It's better to have a steady, sustainable turnaround of clubs and venues. It helps keep the music scene itself from stagnating and compartmentalizing.There's nothing more depressing than a club reaching mythic "legendary" status with 45-year-old, original patrons -- trying to relive old memories -- throwing lecherous glances at the 16-year-old noobs who go there because it's the cool place to be.The best thing that can happen for a club is to close before it gets tired and becomes a caricature of itself. Clubs best live on in the slightly hazy, alcoholic fog of memories of past patrons.

When traveling the country and trying to avoid the Cheesecake Factories, Cracker Barrels and Claim Jumpers that clog the arteries, we get excited whenever we see a Martin Luther King street exit. The same can be said for exit 157 off I-5 in Seattle, where, just to the north, you’ll find a diversity of delicious restaurants.

Excavators are our favorite pieces of heavy construction equipment. They are the most churlish. They throw destructive tantrums with their Trogdor-like arm as their hydraulic motors exude that sweet sweet mechanical whine. On the other hand, we hate that they frequently, callously, and disrespectfully knock down things we like. In this case, Seattle's lost another fine 24-hour joint. We've had many a slooooowwwwwwwwww wee-hours plate of greasy fries there; friends of ours ended up on a first date there. Where will silly late night memories get lubricated with bad coffee now?

After coming across yet another "we're trying to save the sign" campaign in the paper in regards to the big Leilani Lanes pin (the last we remember being the Wonderbread sign) Seattlest is struck that trying to make all of Seattle a big outdoor MOHAI doesn't really do much for actual preservation. The bowling alley is gone and we'll have to make do with Sunset (or the Garage, or any of the others that Contributor Emeritus Steve Mandich wrote up in his awesome bowling series for Seattlest). Sticking a big bowling pin on the side of new construction seems kind of like conquerors popping heads on pikes as a warning to others. Looking at you, Showbox.

The snow is falling, our dear Seattle friends, it simply isn't falling here. Whistler just announced it is open for business, bagging the ultimate ski resort coup of cutting powder before we cut the turkey. Of course you want to go, but in fondly recalling the days of 1998 when the US-CA exchange rate swung wildly the other way, you fear you can really only afford to stay home and play Ski Resort Extreme Halo 3. We've learned a thing or six going back and forth with our neighbors to the north for many a year now, and so we offer you our quick and dirty guide to saving at least a wee bit of money and time in your BC powder-chasing adventures.

"After two years, it's definitely moving," writes invaluable neighborhood blogger Captain Columbia City. He talked to the market's coordinator, Karen, on Wednesday, the last day the Columbia City Farmers Market will be open this year.

Of course, Columbia City Plaza was sold to a development firm on the east coast recently, and so when the Plaza owners lease expires early next year, they'll sign a new one with the new owners. The new owners are planning on putting in a mixed use retail & condo development, but they realize that the planning & permitting process will take years, so they've very kindly offered the current space rent free for the next two years while the permitting process takes place.

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