SDOT To Begin Repaving Dexter Avenue In March

By Sean Keeley · February 23rd, 2011 · 11 Comments

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is planning changes along Dexter Avenue N between Roy Street and Fremont Avenue N in 2011. This project is funded by the “Bridging the Gap” transportation levy approved by Seattle voters in November 2006 and is expected to help ease congestion caused by car, bus and bicyclist overlaps. This project will also improve the pavement condition by repaving the street.

Specifically the work is expected to:

Install a buffered bike lane on each side of the street
Remove the two-way left turn lane
Provide dedicated left-turn lanes at busy intersections
Provide dedicated load zones for businesses that need them
Provide in-lane bus stops to improve transit speed and reliability
Install dedicated bus islands
Install street lighting upgrades
Construct new and upgraded curb ramps
Construct sidewalk improvements
Install drainage upgrades

Roadwork is scheduled to begin in March and will begin just across the Fremont Bridge, spanning Fremont Avenue N (Fourth Avenue N) to McGraw Street. That phase is expected to last 2-3 months.

During construction, you can be expected to experience lane closures, left turn restrictions, pedestrian detours, parking and loading restrictions and instances of weekday and night work.

For more information on this project, visit the SDOT web site.

11 responses so far ↓

1 daniel // Feb 23, 2011 at 2:34 pm

FAIL. The bike lanes should be moved to Westlake.
2 Fremonster // Feb 23, 2011 at 3:24 pm

@Daniel,

You are wrong.

Dexter is a more direct route to downtown and you don’t have to ride over those S.L.U.T. Tracks.
3 daniel // Feb 24, 2011 at 6:29 pm

As much as I love riding hills I will never ride that one. As far as the S.L.U.T. goes just go up 9th.
4 E38 // Feb 25, 2011 at 8:31 am

So another road put on a diet in order to cater to bikers and create congestion. Ever notice that the center 2 way lane really doesn’t do much justice? They install these in areas that sometimes lead to no where. This is all in an effort to create congestion to get us out of our cars; as explained to me by a DOT worker who helps design these road diets. They word the work to sound like it is advantages to everyone when it benifits only the bikers. Some roads can be designed to do that without sacraficing lanes of traffic for cars. On Columbia between Beacon and 15th they literally shrunk the road 10 to 15 feet on each side with useless parking strip space to shrink the road from 4 lanes down to 2 and bike lanes. No matter it backs up during rush hours, they had to have their bike lanes. They could have given them the bike lanes AND kept all 4 lanes NOT TO MENTION it would have been a lot less expensive to NOT have added all that cemented park strip. What they told me was it was a “Curb improvement project” but they failed to mention they were doing a road diet for bikers. Perfect example of talking out the side of their mouths. But as long as Cascade Bikers have closed door sessions with the City Council we will continue to get screwed.
5 biliruben // Feb 25, 2011 at 1:52 pm

Road diet? This ain’t no stinkin’ road diet, not that they slow cars down either.

But don’t let facts get in the way of your rant.
6 Mondoman // Feb 25, 2011 at 2:23 pm

I don’t get it — it says this project will *remove* the center left-turn lane, leaving just some dedicated left-turn lanes at major intersections. Won’t that lead to big traffic delays as cars stop and block the only travel lane while waiting to turn left in the areas between major intersections?
7 E38 // Feb 25, 2011 at 7:32 pm

@biliruben, lets wait until the project is done and then see if traffic moves more or less smoothly.

@Mondoman, they have to make room for the bike lanes. Where do you think they will get that extra pavement from? When they do these projects they make it sound like improvements but the question is; for who?
8 BHS68 // Feb 26, 2011 at 3:52 am

“expected to help ease congestion” and “provide in-lane bus stops to improve transit speed and reliability” are mutually exclusive. All vehicle traffic will be backed up behind buses when they stop at bus stops. I now use Dexter to avoid the backups on Elliott thanks the the BAT lanes, now they’re going to screw it up too?
9 BS98 // Feb 26, 2011 at 9:11 am

Our single occupant vehicle model in an urban environment is not very sustainable in the long term. So optimizing the public transit system mechanics including in-lane bus stops will be part of our future. Embrace change and evolve. And thanks to the yahoos who never yield to buses rejoining the traffic flow, you folks are why in-lane bus stops are needed.
10 koa // Feb 26, 2011 at 1:55 pm

E38…I think you seriously need to get over yourself for one minute and think about the big picture…
We live in a CITY, one of the most congested in the entire country at that…so if we are going to encourage people to move back into urban areas as part of the overall movement to “green” our lives…live closer, work closer etc…then you have to embrace a little change.
Ever notice how many people use the HOV lanes? They were a good thought, but look at the usage percentages since they have been implemented…simply not worth the space. This city cannot support tens of thousands more new arrivals, all driving single occupancy cars. If making people learn the hard way by road dieting works…then so be it.
This is the PNW, and if you think it’s “bad” here, take a trip to Portland…they’ve got it down to a science, and it works.
Try taking a bus a couple times a week, you’ll be less stressed out…otherwise maybe think about moving to Detroit, or Kansas City…you know, somewhere that caters exclusively to motor vehicles
11 Mondoman // Mar 2, 2011 at 3:16 pm

koa,
It seems from what you write that we should convert HOV lanes to general-purpose lanes, and not get rid of center left-turn lanes (as this project proposes), in order to improve traffic flow. Sounds reasonable to me.