Tag Archives: construction

With 49 buildings at highest risk across Capitol Hill and Central District, Seattle pushes for 2022 progress on mandatory earthquake retrofits

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Seattle Public Schools spent $260,000 on a seismic overhaul of Lowell Elementary

This time around, something might actually happen in Seattle’s 40-year quest to shore up unreinforced masonry buildings. A City Council resolution approved in December could finally lead to some budgetary heft behind the idea of retrofitting the buildings to modern safety standards. The action is likely to one day lead to mandatory retrofits of such buildings. Though there is no defined timeline for when a mandate might happen, the earliest possibility is still years away.

The effort is critical for Capitol Hill and the Central District. CHS analysis shows some 211 area properties in the city’s “unreinforced masonry” database. Of those, 49 are considered either critical or high risk and only nine of those have either been substantially altered or retrofitted. 17 have been permitted for the expensive retrofitting construction. CHS has reported on work done to protect some of them including E Mercer’s Lowell Elementary School.

Among other plans, the resolution calls for Mayor Bruce Harrell to add spending to ramp up staff in the city’s Department of Construction and Inspections, which could finally get things moving.

“While I’m not excited about a future earthquake, I am excited to get this program going,” said Nathan Torgelson, director of the department during a meeting of the city council’s Public Safety and Human Services Committee.

The plans laid out by the resolution call for first defining and categorizing these buildings. Some of that work has been done, as the city has been tracking the buildings for years. It has identified more than 1,100 unreinforced masonry buildings across Seattle. Of these, 75 are a critical risk, according to a presentation given by Yolanda Ho of the city council staff at the Dec. 9 meeting. Another 184 are considered high risk, while the remainder are a medium risk.

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‘The carpenters’ fight is our fight to make Seattle affordable for all’ — Sawant unveils construction worker parking reimbursement bill

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As members of the Northwest Carpenters Union have approved a new contract that included employers doing more to help defray the costs of transportation and transit to work sites in the city, City Councilmember Kshama Sawant has unveiled legislation she says will require contractors in Seattle to pay for the cost of parking for construction workers.

“Shamefully, construction industry contractors, who have made billions in profits off the backs of workers, have refused to cover the cost of parking for carpenters and many other construction workers,” Sawant said in a statement on her new legislation and called on her council colleagues to quickly approve the bill. Continue reading →

COVID-19 restrictions bring most Seattle construction to a halt — including Capitol Hill Station’s hundreds of new apartments

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Capitol Hill Station’s “transit oriented development” construction will come to a halt (Image: CHS)

While Capitol Hill has gone mostly quiet under COVID-19 restrictions, there was a louder than usual buzz of saws, hammering, and heavy equipment as contractors worked Wednesday to wrap up projects and secure work sites across the neighborhood.

Monday’s latest round of restrictions to slow the outbreak’s spread include a shutdown of businesses and industries deemed “non-essential” — late Wednesday, word spread that would, indeed, include most residential and commercial construction.

Across Seattle and on Capitol Hill, the decision will ripple through the area on a project by project basis. Most will also go quiet. Continue reading →

CHS Pics | A very big crane comes safely down at 14th and Madison

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The first major disassembly and removal on Capitol Hill following April’s deadly crane fall in South Lake Union was not uneventful.

High winds last Friday forced crews to stop the effort above the mixed-use construction at 14th and E Madison mid-project.

It was completed without incident — like most of the big crane projects across Capitol Hill and the Central District in the last decade —  on a much calmer day this Tuesday as Chinn Construction crews again set to taking apart the huge machine section by section above the closed 14th Ave. Continue reading →

Many cranes above Capitol Hill and the CD, few safety incidents over decade of intense development

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In a neighborhood full of construction cranes, you might be looking at the Capitol Hill sky a little differently after Saturday’s terrible accident on Mercer. But with a development wave of more than a decade reshaping Pike/Pine and Broadway, reported incidents involving cranes and Capitol Hill construction sites have been few and far between.

Most incidents CHS has reported on over the years have been minor and fortunately there have been few injuries. In 2013, for example, a crane working on the 12th Ave Arts building dropped a bundle of shoring beams. Nobody was reported injured and the project was not significantly delayed by the incident.

Beyond cranes, the neighborhood’s construction sites have only been the location of a handful of significant emergency situations over the years. Continue reading →

Here’s how to keep track of two years of construction coming around Capitol Hill Station

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Capitol Hill Housing’s Station House is slated to open in 2019

The ribbon has been cut on the project to surround Capitol Hill Station with housing, retail, and community development. Come 2020, commercial activity will return to the block for the first time since 2006 and a whole bunch of new Capitol Hill neighbors will call this stretch of Broadway home. But, first, current neighbors need to deal with two years of construction and the rise of two new tower cranes in the heart of Broadway. Here’s how to keep up to date.

This Capitol Hill Station Project Page from the development’s lead contractor Lease Crutcher Lewis will be used to keep the neighborhood alerted to coming construction, the latest milestones, and when big new elements of the construction process will be moving into place, a project representative tells CHS.

The first update for July deals with a key element of the earliest stages of the project — digging up a lot of dirt: Continue reading →

Melrose Market merchants say Capitol Hill construction hurting business

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The future view from Melrose of the eight-story Excelsior

The future view from Melrose of the eight-story Excelsior

Melrose Market from developer Liz Dunn, often held up as a prime example of locally friendly development on Capitol Hill, is apparently the victim of locally unfriendly construction in the neighborhood:

Russ Flint, owner of Rain Shadow Meats, says sales have dropped between 13 and 20 percent each year since construction began in earnest in 2013, while his newer Pioneer Square location remains steady. Obviously there could be tons of factors at play here, but Flint points to instances when construction shut down Melrose on a Friday or plans called for blocking all street parking the entire week of Thanksgiving (those closure dates changed after some serious pushback from Melrose Market businesses). If you’re performing repair work on a major city thoroughfare, these are the times that cause the least disruption. If you operate a business that sells food (like, say, heritage Thanksgiving turkeys), it’s the financial equivalent of a sucker punch.

Cheese monger Sheri LaVigne announced that construction headaches are enough to force her to close the market’s Calf and Kid cheese counter. Her Culture Club cheese bar opened late in 2015 on 12th Ave. UPDATE: LaVigne tells CHS Calf and Kid will live on. She’s moving the cheese counter to Culture Club where you’ll be able to enjoy cheese flights and pairings — and, now, pick up some of LaVigne’s delicious selections to take home.

Restaurateur Matt Dillon, who operates two businesses inside Melrose Market, also told Seattle Met that construction is disrupting his restaurant’s business. Dillon just opened Upper Bar Ferdinand inside Chophouse Row on 11th Ave, Dunn’s newest project.

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New rules supposed to keep sidewalks open, streets safe around Capitol Hill construction

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Detour, Sidewalk Closed, Stop!
If a new set of rules work as intended, it should be a lot safer to walk — and drive and bike — around Capitol Hill’s continuing wave of big construction projects. The Seattle Department of Transportation has new rules to govern when and if a developer can close a sidewalk during construction.

The biggest change, according to Brian de Place, street use director for SDOT, is a policy statement that changes the tone for sidewalk closures. As a general rule, it’s expected that Seattle sidewalks shall remain open during construction.

“Closures are a last resort,” de Place said.

As a result, future projects are expected to find a way to keep the sidewalk passable rather than sending pedestrians across streets and around blocks. “That’s out default. That’s our starting point,” de Place tells CHS. “You are minimizing the instances when someone has to cross the street.” The new rules mean a new effort around enforcement. If you see conditions around a construction site which you think are unsafe, report them to [email protected]. Specific locations and pictures can help make sure things get cleared up as quickly as possible.

The old regulations, which date to 2011, did not have as concise a phrase, and didn’t consider keeping the sidewalk open to be the goal, on a policy level. “At the time, it provided some level of consistency, but it didn’t get the city where it needed to go,” de Place said. Continue reading →

Sound Transit: The ‘restoration’ of Broadway and John about to begin

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This image of the “conex box” was featured in our January 16th “week in pictures” post

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(Image: Sound Transit — so don’t blame us for the E Olive Way mistake)

It sounds nearly biblical. With service slated to begin in less than a year and the bulk of tunnel and station construction complete, Sound Transit has announced that its contractors will begin a new phase of work this weekend to recreate the sidewalk, curbs, and gutters around Capitol Hill Station along Broadway and E John. Details of the construction work are below including the planned removal Saturday of the big red “conex box” used for pedestrian safety along E John adjacent the construction site. Removal of the Big Red Wall is also underway along with the art projects that have accumulated on the block over the the past five years. Sound Transit estimates the restoration will take about six weeks.

Meanwhile, we’re told Sound Transit was preparing a response to Capitol Hill Housing’s protest over details of the proposal from Gerding Edlen for the Portland-based developer to lease or purchase — and then develop — the transit agency’s two acres of land surrounding Capitol Hill Station. All sides say the issue is moving forward and that they expect to have a resolution in place before a planned May 16th open house.

Restoration of Broadway and E. John Street starts May 2nd

Sound Transit’s contractor has obtained a noise variance from the City of Seattle to remove the pedestrian conex box on E. John Street between Broadway and 10th Avenue E. from 7 a.m. – 6 p.m. Saturday, May 2, 2015. Residents may hear noise from the equipment used to remove the conex box and from trucks used to load and haul the pieces from the site.

There will be intermittent closures of the eastbound curb lane on E. John Street in order to safely complete the removal. A police officer and flaggers will direct vehicles and pedestrians around the work area.

Following the conex box removal, crews will begin to demolish the red wall at this location, then install curbs, gutters and sidewalks along the east side of Broadway between E. Denny Way and E. John Street and along E. John Street between Broadway and 10th Avenue E.

On-street parking will be restricted along Broadway between E. Denny Way and E. John Street during restoration work. This phase of restoration is expected to take approximately six weeks to complete, depending on weather.
What to expect:

  • Flaggers and detour signage will direct vehicles and pedestrians around the work area. Intermittent daytime noise from demolition and saws and jackhammers as crews break up concrete and repave the area.
  • Sidewalk closures and restricted on-street parking in the work area.

Further updates will be provided as work proceeds in the area.

600+ new apartments around Capitol Hill this year, even more ready in 2016

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(Image: Kate Clark via Flickr)

(Image: Kate Clark via Flickr)

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Seattle in Progress and more than 90 either planned or permitted (below)

Seattle in Progress shows 23 projects completed around Capitol Hill in the past year (top) and more than 90 either planned or permitted (below)

Greater Capitol Hill will be home to at least 600 new apartment units in 2015 as the most recent wave of ongoing construction projects finally finish up. A recent report from Dupre+Scott Apartment Advisors projects 729 new units will open in 2016 and 707 in 2017.

In all likelihood, the true number will be even higher as the Dupre+Scott report doesn’t count microhousing, subsidized/nonprofit housing, or buildings that have under 20 units.

Last year, the real estate analysts counted 778 new units in the Capitol Hill region, which includes Eastlake and First Hill. Across the Puget Sound, a record total of 12,000 apartments are expected to open this year, Scott said. Some 48,000 apartments are expected to open in the region by 2019.

So can all this new supply keep up with demand and put the brakes on climbing rents? Continue reading →