Post navigation

Prev: (01/31/23) | Next: (02/01/23)

Don’t throw traffic cones at Madison bus rapid transit construction workers — Here’s who to contact about night noise

Keep cool, Capitol Hill.

After just over a year of work, construction is still less than 50% complete on the Madison bus rapid transit line. This week’s noisy night time work apparently pushed a few people over the edge.

In an altercation caught on video Friday night, an agitated man can be seen yelling and throwing traffic cones at a crew working on the RapidRide G route near 12th and Madison outside the Pony bar in a late night confrontation the Seattle Department of Transportation says ended peacefully.

“An intoxicated person entered the construction site and attempted to start an argument with the workers,” a department representative tells CHS about the 11:30 PM incident.

“Thankfully, our crew members were all protected by construction safety gear and no crew members were injured. A uniformed police officer was on site directing traffic, and the crew was able to de-escalate the situation and convince the person to leave before more officers arrived.”

CHS reported here on the rough road to RapidRide G for residents and businesses along Madison as the construction has repeatedly torn up sections of the corridor and made crossing difficult for pedestrians and bikers. The three-year, $134 million SDOT-managed project has grown into a complete overhaul with everything from the city’s sidewalks and intersections to its water and sewer mains being ripped up and replaced along the 2.4-mile route. Relief is coming. 2023 brings what should be the final push of major construction as the system prepares for a 2024 start of service. Along the way, the construction schedule will shift the most intensive work up and down the corridor to hopefully give areas a break. When it finally debuts, along with what is hoped to be faster, more efficient bus service, the route will also have new curb ramps, sidewalks, and crossing improvements.

Friday’s crew was part of a weekend of overnight work for the SDOT-managed project involving major waterline updates that were scheduled to be underway through Tuesday. The work also involved some water service disruptions for nearby buildings.

The waterline work is just one of several infrastructure upgrades that have been piggybacked on the project, pushing its timeline for completion out to 2024. The work is important — in this case, the project with Seattle Public Utilities is replacing “an old water main originally built in 1903” — but it has added to the scope and the scale of the BRT project.

“We’re doing much of that work at night in order to minimize the impacts of water shut-offs to residents and businesses, as well as reduce the impact to the traveling public,” the SDOT rep said.

“We understand that construction at night is difficult and we complete the noisiest activities before 10 PM, as is required by the contractor’s nighttime construction variance.”

Instead of throwing cones, SDOT asks anyone with “concerns about accessibility or other issues with construction” to send the location, contact information, and details of the issues “so we can better understand and work together throughout construction” to [email protected] or call (206) 484-2780 or complete this BRT construction survey.

 

BECOME A CHS SUBSCRIBER
Subscribe to CHS to help us pay writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. Become a subscriber at $1/$5/$10 a month.

 

 

 
Subscribe and support CHS Contributors -- $1/$5/$10 per month

27 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Neighbor
Neighbor
1 year ago

Thanks for adding some details of what the heck they are doing. This feels like a lot of disruption for adding a bus line

Rabbit
Rabbit
1 year ago
Reply to  Neighbor

They’re widening the street, repaving, installing traffic signals, adding bus platforms & shelters, adding streetlights, adding curb ramps, shortening pedestrian crossings, improving the stormwater system, and replacing the water and sewer main. The work encompasses more than just a bus route.

They made the right decision doing it all at once. It would be far more expensive and would take far longer if they didn’t bundle several projects together like this.

Neighbor
Neighbor
1 year ago
Reply to  Rabbit

Totally agree, thanks for the info!

olive
olive
1 year ago
Reply to  Neighbor

also adding a new water main to replace the one built in 1903 + other infrastructure – not just a bus line

Please Match The Requested Format
Please Match The Requested Format
1 year ago

All this work, all this concrete, and we get…a bus route.

Seriously.

The ONLY way this is worthwhile is if we were installing a trolly/tram line on Madison.

Something we should be doing, but of course this city can’t do anything right since we keep electing ppl like the risible Pedersen to the CC, and ridiculous mayors like Harrell.

I mean, Madison itself is a historic trolley line, why the f*ck are we not reinstalling this if we’re spending this much time and money?

It’s maddening.

We can’t do literally anything right.

Alex
Alex
1 year ago

The article mentions that they are replacing a 120-year-old water main and overhauling the street and sidewalks in addition to the addition of BRT line.

From a cost and benefit perspective, installing a trolley or other one-off system does not make sense. SDOT sees significant efficiencies in hiring the bus service from Metro, and Metro makes the most efficient use of public dollars by operating bus service across the County.

Fairly Obvious
Fairly Obvious
1 year ago
Reply to  Alex

They know this and are nothing more than a troll. Probably a paid troll at that.

Only a complete moron would believe all this work is to “add a bus lane”. It’s the same morons who thought the 7th Ave bike lane downtown cost $12 million per mile.

They are either morons getting paid to spread lies or gullible morons regurgitating obvious lies, for free, making them even bigger morons.

Glenn
Glenn
1 year ago

This project was voted on and approved way before Pedersen and Harrell were on Council and Mayor respectively. Can’t blame them!

zach
zach
1 year ago
Reply to  Glenn

I don’t remember voting on it. It was probably buried in a larger proposal, and not noticed specifically by many people, including me.

Nandor
Nandor
1 year ago
Reply to  zach

You didn’t vote on it, thankfully…. We vote on a transportation levy, so set the money that can be used, but if we relied on voters to have to get together and agree on every single public works project done in this city nothing would ever get done and we’d waste millions of $$$ exploring whatever fringe options that a couple of vocal weirdos wanted cough*monorail*cough..

I’m not exactly convinced that a rapid bus line was needed for a measly 2.2 mile trip.. but the water main upgrades certainly were, so tearing up the street was inevitable and if the federal government was going to give us $60 million to fix the street up nice again with a far better road surface that the buses won’t destroy, better stops and improved sidewalks, why in the world should we say, nah… we’ll just pay for it all ourselves thanks..

Hillery
Hillery
1 year ago

So true.
Also, many cars in Madison aren’t going downtown they’re going to the highway so they won’t all be opting for this “express bus”.

ltfd
ltfd
1 year ago

Because, buses are cheaper and can go around traffic blockages like delivery, fire, and medical vehicles.

neighbor
neighbor
1 year ago

the old trolley rails were visible during some of the demo on Madison near 23rd

Jonathan
Jonathan
1 year ago

I’m sure those city workers telling us to call a number to complain don’t have to deal with this mess…always easier when it’s not your home.

DD15
DD15
1 year ago

Another reason why all new, dense housing should not be on busy arterials.

Hillery
Hillery
1 year ago

The night time noise variance approval is bull

LSRes
LSRes
1 year ago
Reply to  Hillery

Perhaps you would like the suburbs. Cities are noisy sometimes.

The loudest thing in the city usually is traffic. Maybe some of you would rather us just ban cars.

beedunzy
beedunzy
1 year ago

And the workers went home to vote Republican, lol

John Whittier Treat
John Whittier Treat
1 year ago

In Tokyo, Seoul or Beijing, this endless project would have been completed in one week.

Charles Peterson
Charles Peterson
1 year ago

That’s what’s been so maddening about. I totally understand the mains work etc needs to be done, but don’t tear it up and then let it sit there for several months like an abandoned construction site. Is it a manpower issue, a city inspection issues, or just bad co-ordination between subs? Who knows…

Whichever
Whichever
1 year ago

And in most of those places, noise ordinances and other things we value here are largely ignored.

zach
zach
1 year ago

This “rapid bus line” is ridiculous. I have read that it will only decrease the transit time by 5 minutes. is it worth all the massive disruption for years, not to mention the huge amount of money it’s costing taxpayers? I think not!!

Whichever
Whichever
1 year ago
Reply to  zach

I used to ride the 12 from 15th to the 5th stop – most of the delay is the traffic backed up getting to the freeway. Assuming that they actually enforce the bus lane in the area of the freeway, this will absolutely save more time than 5 minutes.

Natalie
Natalie
1 year ago
Reply to  zach

5 minutes compared to what? This is a brand new bus line that didn’t exist before – previously you’d need to transfer from the 11 to the 12. That transfer alone takes more than 5 minutes unless you get really lucky with bus timing.

paul
paul
1 year ago

SDOT, city council and mayor are responsible for the ridiculous extended construction timeline. SDOT Is a complete failure on almost everything they do.

Hillery
Hillery
1 year ago
Reply to  paul

SDOT is a fail and so are their lowest bidder slow as molasses contractors

zach
zach
1 year ago
Reply to  paul

Agreed. SDOT is a VERY dysfunctional City department.