Seattle Times Bumper to Bumper Column: Groovy I-5 Redo | Ballard’s Big Squeeze
By Charles E. Brown, Seattle Times
Sep. 3–Q: The around-the-clock orange barrels and concrete barriers are gone. The construction workers have moved on. And the contractor reaps a hefty bonus — $100,000 a day times five, according to the state Department of Transportation — for finishing the $15.5 million Interstate 5 project through downtown Seattle five days ahead of schedule.
Those are taxpayer dollars. And a darned good investment, if you consider the amount of grief the early finish spared the motoring public, said a department administrator.
“That’s all well and good,” said Mark Anderson of Bellevue. “However, the construction looks so horrible. There are lines in every direction, some in the middle of lanes and some veering into other lanes. The pavement is grooved.”
Not only does the project not seem finished, but it seems quite simply dangerous, said Anderson. Is this the best the public can expect?
A: The state has heard other complaints, too, that the new pavement on northbound I-5 between South Spokane Street and Interstate 90 appears and feels a little different from the pavement on other freeways.
Yes, a few areas of the I-5 project are still uneven. Project manager Messay Shiferaw says those areas have been marked and the contractor will be grinding them down to match the rest of the roadway over the next few weeks.
“Otherwise, the new polyester pavement is behaving exactly as we intended,” he said. “The grooves drivers have noticed are designed to help improve skid resistance and enhance safety.”
Shiferaw says a process called tining was used to create the grooves. Crews pulled a big, rakelike machine behind the paving machine to create 3/16-inch grooves in the pavement.
The grooves give drivers extra traction to keep vehicles from slipping on the pavement, particularly when it’s wet. They also are supposed to reduce stopping distance by about 40 percent.
“We are currently using temporary lane markings to guide drivers while we put the finishing touches on the newly paved lanes,” Shiferaw said. “Crews have to wait two weeks after paving before they apply the permanent lane markings, which are highly reflective in the rain and at night, and are very durable.”
Besides that, drivers have likely noticed faint grind marks on the pavement. That’s known as ghost striping. It’s what often remains when traffic is shifted to the right or left during construction.
“We’ve asked our contractor to try to further grind off those faint markings,” he said. “If that doesn’t work, they may use gray paint to cover up the white temporary striping.”
The remaining work, including grinding and permanent striping, is scheduled to be done during nighttime closures, which have already started and will continue through October.
Q: Foolish is what Ballard resident Anthony Salazar calls Seattle’s plan to squeeze four lanes of traffic into two along a stretch of 24th Avenue Northwest in Ballard. He doesn’t think much of what the city’s transportation department calls a road diet.
The section, between Northwest Market Street and Northwest 65th Street, is heavily traveled, and drivers, Salazar points out, share the road with no less than three Metro bus routes.
“To decrease the number of lanes seems misguided and will ultimately prove ill-fated,” he said.
“With the rise of condo buildings on 24th Avenue Northwest, and an increase in new Ballard residents, what possible sense can this make?”
A: The installation of a middle turn lane and bicycle lanes in both directions will meet the goals set out in the Ballard Neighborhood Plan to increase walking, biking, and access to transit in the Ballard business district, says Wayne Wentz, the transportation department’s traffic-management director.
Reducing the number of motor-vehicle lanes will improve pedestrian safety along the corridor because it will reduce the number of traffic lanes a pedestrian must cross, he said.
The dedicated bicycle lanes will connect to the Ballard business district and to the future Burke-Gilman Trail. “In addition,” Wentz added, “motor-vehicle access and safety will be improved by creating a protected space for vehicles making left turns.”
Wentz says the department’s analysis indicates that vehicle capacity and operation along 24th Avenue Northwest will not be reduced
Spokesman Gregg Hirakawa says the department has done traffic-volume counts and that the volume is so low, three lanes should be enough, even during peak traffic periods.
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