Thanks for all the pictures and notes about the gaping hole in the earth that has developed in the middle of E Olive Way at Bellevue Sunday night.
For those wondering, the hole in the pavement is far from the light rail tunneling route but in an area that could probably use a re-paving. We have no confirmed details yet on the cause.
Seattle Police are on scene to direct traffic around the shopping-cart-sized divot until a longer term solution comes to play. In the meantime, nearby City Market still stands.
(Image: @typewriteralley)
There were construction workers on that spot just last week. You can see the new pavement patch best in the 2nd picture. They must have done a great job.
Just walked by the nice guy watching the hole with Seattle Public Utilities told me he smelled sewage and was doing a dye test. He said the apartment building next door to city market is the closes line of sewage and it might be connected to the issue. Recent road work has been done so maybe the punctured a sewage line.
Typical of Seattle DOT. Always do a slapdash job at patching a hole so you can do it again two years later. Our roads are a joke; try driving Roy between 15th and 19th and avoid the craters; it looks like that street has been bombed. I’ve been in poor eastern European countries and seen better roadways and maintenance (not exaggerating).
I lived in Seattle for 19 years, then moved away. Today I returned for a visit and drove all over town.
Nothing has changed with the streets – still the worst-paved streets I’ve seen anywhere in an American city.
Oh yes, there have been some changes; a bit of the old cobblestone is gone from Aloha near 23rd. But overall, be it Queen Anne, Capitol Hill, Madison Park, Lake Washington Boulevard, University District – anywhere I went today, the streets were still as broken as I remembered from before.
Why? In almost any other city, the Major would have been fired for something as simple as ignoring general street repair like this. Forget whatever SDOT says; they’re doing a horrible job!
The road surface of Roy between 15th and 19th is best enjoyed on a bicycle.
If it’s rough in a car, it’s dangerous to a bicyclist.
That area needs repaving and so does Bellevue Ave from Pike to Denny especially at the intersection of Bellevue and Pine. The trolly buses have lost their poles before due to the potholes being so deep and numerous. I have reported it several times and they come out and patch with asphalt that lasts maybe two rain storms. All the condos and new construction over the years have contributed to most of the damage with their heavy trucks coming and going. The buses also have some of the blame but the fact that they save cars from being on the road negates their damage.
Are you kidding? I agree in concept, but it’d take Seattle a year and a half to repave a block of the street, and they’d have ridiculous detours up the whole time.
on an aluminum bike, Roy feels like it’s going to shatter your bike and/or spine. Enough to make one yearn for steel.
The side streets on the north end of the Hill are so rutted it reminds me of the Oregon Trail.And yet they are going to use hundreds of yards of asphalt to put five speed humps on Harvard ave between Lakeview and E Miller. Who comes up with these plans?
This sinkhole isn’t due to a pavement problem. It is a failure of an underground utility pipe. Probably a sewer break. The SPUD has rehabbed some of the sewers in this neighborhood about a block from here in the last year or so.
Apparently you’ve never been to Philadelphia or New York.
Cancel the Cap hill tunnel and the street car and put the money into our streets.
What a bunch of nonsense.
Or Chicago and its suburbs. Those streets are in a permanent state of pothole misery thanks to careless snowplow drivers.
Why bother if the repaving takes 9 months and the holes resurface 3 months later? Let’s put all of our money into stadiums instead!
In any case, Capitol Hill just have to wait in line after Northlake, Queen Anne and the ID.
… Or better yet, get rid of the roads and build more transit and bike lanes.
besides, who would fire the major, whoever that is?
Sorry, but our democratic vote won’t be changed for your little hissy fit. Get out of your car and walk. You could use the excercise.