Seattle Department of Transportation crews will pave 3rd Avenue NW between NW 120th and 122nd streets on Sept. 7-8. Work hours will be from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., with detours starting at 9 a.m.

Metro buses will not be impacted and uniformed police officers will be on location to direct traffic and assist with boarding at the two stops at corners of NW 120th St and 3rd Ave which will be open, (one northbound and one southbound).

Crosswalks, sidewalks or walking paths will not be affected. Local Access Only to driveways or for emergency vehicles. This project is part of SDOT’s Arterial Major Maintenance (AMM) program.

Seattle Department of Transportation crews will be pruning trees and trimming vegetation in the median strip along 8th Avenue NW, between NW 65th and 85th streets, next Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 6-7.

“No Parking” signs will be placed along that entire 20-block span, and will be enforced from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days. If you normally park along 8th Avenue NW, you’ll have to move your car to side streets on both those days during those hours.

Seattle Department of Transportation’s Safe Routes to School is celebrating upgrades to pedestrian and bike safety near the new schools opening this fall just off Aurora Avenue North at North 90th Street (Robert Eagle Staff Middle School and Cascadia Elementary School).

From 1-5 p.m. on Aug. 26 at Greenwood Park, 602 NW 87th St., bring your bike for a bike rodeo, helmet giveaway to the first 50 people who don’t already have a helmet, free basic bike repair, music, food, story time with Seattle Public Library, raffle for bike gear, prizes and gift cards from local businesses, and a scavenger hunt. Learn more about bike safety and skills and the safest routes to school.

The following day, at 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 27, Licton-Haller Greenways and Greenwood-Phinney Greenways are hosting a Safe Routes to School Celebration and Ribbon Cutting at the corner of North 92nd Street and Ashworth Avenue North, behind the new schools.

After the ribbon cutting, a bike and walking parade will celebrate the new trail and improved Safe Routes to School.

Seattle Department of Transportation will begin its “microsurfacing” preventative maintenance program in three neighborhoods beginning next week, including Bitter Lake, just north of Greenwood.

SDOT contractors will apply a seal-coat to non-arterial city streets. The work is weather dependent and could be rescheduled if it rains.

The work in Bitter Lake will happen on Aug. 19 and Aug. 21-24. Click here to see which streets will be microsurfaced and when.

To prepare these streets for the microsurfacing seal-coat, it’s essential that any structural damage is repaired prior to the microsurfacing process. Therefore, SDOT crews have patched deteriorated areas of the selected roads well in advance of the microsurfacing operation. In addition, low hanging branches and overgrowth needs to be trimmed to allow for the microsurfacing equipment to navigate the roads. Pre-sweeping will be done by SDOT crews days in advance of the work, and the contractor will perform a final sweep on the day of microsurfacing.

What to expect:

• Microsurfacing work will take place between the hours of 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. On the day of microsurfacing, all personal items, including vehicles, will need to be removed from the roadway.
• Residents will need to park their cars on a nearby block not being microsurfaced. During the microsurfacing process, large equipment will apply a thin layer of seal coat onto the pavement. While some streets may remain closed after 5 p.m. to allow for drying time of the street surface, crews will re-open all streets the same day the work is done.
• A sealed street will be closed to vehicular traffic for up to 8 hours to allow the seal coat to set. Residents, pedestrians, and even pets should be kept off the emulsion until it has dried. The microsurfacing emulsion will be sticky and difficult to remove from clothing or pet fur. Please do not wash cars or water lawns as this may delay the microsurfacing curing process. Please do not drive, walk, run, play or ride bikes on the street until it has been re-opened.

Microsurfacing is a protective seal coat which extends the life of pavement. This is a cost-effective method to renew the road surface and seal minor cracks and other irregularities. Like painting a house, microsurfacing creates a protective layer which preserves the underlying structure and minimizes the need for more expensive repairs in the future.

If you have questions about microsurfacing work in your neighborhood, please email: 2017Microsurfacing@seattle.gov or call (206) 643-6304.

Just a reminder that Seattle Department of Transportation is holding a public meeting from 5:30-7 p.m. Wednesday at Crown Hill Center, 9250 14th Ave NW, in the gym, to get community feedback on its plans for major upgrades to the intersection of Holman Road NW and 13th Avenue NW.

Those plans include a new pedestrian and bicycle signal, additional lighting at the nearby bus stop, and a possible new public plaza on the NE corner, where the pedestrian bridge stairs are now. The proposal also calls for demolishing the pedestrian bridge, which has some community members concerned.

You can more about SDOT’s plan on its blog, which includes numbers of how many pedestrian use the overpass and the street crossing at various times of the day.

Seattle Department of Transportation is planning major upgrades to the intersection of Holman Road NW and 13th Avenue NW, including a new pedestrian and bicycle signal, additional lighting at the nearby bus stop, and a possible new public plaza on the NE corner, where the pedestrian bridge stairs are now.

But the proposal also calls for demolishing the pedestrian bridge. Many community members have expressed concern that many pedestrians feel safer using that bridge while crossing to and from Crown Hill Center and nearby Whitman Middle School, so SDOT will hold a public meeting with City Councilmember Mike O’Brien to discuss more about the plan.

The meeting will be from 5:30-7 p.m. Wednesday, July 19 at Crown Hill Center, 9250 14th Ave NW, in the gym.

“You’ll get to learn more about why the current design is recommended, have your questions answered about why we’d consider removing the pedestrian overpass, and discuss how the street would operate with these changes,” according to the press release.

You can more about SDOT’s plan on its blog, which includes numbers of how many pedestrian use the overpass and the street crossing at various times of the day.

SDOT will soon begin improving the intersection of Aurora Avenue North and North 92nd Street to make it safer for pedestrians and bikers.

SDOT crews will add a new signal, curb ramps, and add a median island to reduce cut-through traffic.

The improvements are designed to help the Safe Routes to School connection between the existing neighborhood greenway on Fremont Avenue North and the new school complex on the east side of Aurora. The plan is to turn on the new signal in September in time for the first day of school (Sept. 6 for Seattle Public Schools).

During construction, be prepared for vehicle lane and parking restrictions, as well as pedestrian detours on sidewalks. Normal work hours are from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday with some night and weekend work.

Seattle Department of Transportation is hosting three community meetings to present its new east-west neighborhood greenway, the North Seattle Neighborhood Greenway & School Safety Project. The greenway will be built in 2018 and will connect Crown Hill, Greenwood, Licton Springs, and Northgate.

You can see a map of the route here.

Meetings are scheduled for:

• 10-11:30 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 4, at Crown Hill Center, 9250 14th Ave. NW, and will focus on plans to get people safely across Holman Road NW and NW 92nd St. Coffee provided.
• 4:30-6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 9 at Lantern Brewing, 938 N. 95th St., and will focus on safely crossing Aurora Avenue North at North 92nd Street with a new crossing signal. All ages are welcome; soft drinks provided; beer available for purchase.
• 10-11:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 11, at Monkey Business Preschool, 9728 Greenwood Ave. N. #B, and will focus on safely crossing Greenwood Avenue NW at NW 100th Street with a new crossing signal. Coffee provided.

The route emphasizes avoiding the steepest hills and prioritizes streets with lower vehicle speeds and volumes.

All of the neighborhood greenway streets will prioritize people walking and biking, and improve crossings of busy streets. We are responding to the requests for reduced cut through traffic with changes to the intersection of N 100th St and Greenwood Ave N and calming traffic along the route with speed humps where feasible.

Seattle Department of Transportation will stripe the newly-paved lanes of Greenwood Avenue North between North 112th and 125th streets on Monday night, weather permitting. If delayed by rain, crews will try to stripe on Tuesday night.

Road crews also will replace vehicle detection equipment in the pavement on Greenwood Avenue at North 117th and North 125th streets during the day on Wednesday, which will require some short term lane closures.

Crews also will be doing small-scale work at the intersections of North 115th, 117th, 122nd, and 125th streets next week.