City warns of traffic issues during President Xi visit

Cal Anderson Boughs

We don’t think China’s President Xi Jinping will make a stop by the Chinese Scholar Tree on the north edge of Cal Anderson Park but it has been — also — carefully protected should he decide to make a quick swing through Capitol Hill to visit the future light rail station.

Xi will, however, be all over downtown this week creating three days of even crazier traffic than usual and “limiting” vehicle traffic in the area “bounded by Olive St., 7th Ave, Lenora St and 4th Ave” to provide the leader a secure corridor of operations around his hotel. Details on the traffic impacts from the City of Seattle, below.

Seattle plans for traffic during visit of Chinese delegation

SEATTLE (Sept. 18, 2015) The City of Seattle is working with local and federal agencies to manage traffic on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of next week during the visit of a large Chinese delegation. Seattle officials are working to support U.S. Secret Service efforts to provide security.

“Seattle is honored to host President Xi and his delegation during his visit to the United States,” said Mayor Ed Murray. “With an international visit of this stature and the accompanying federal security requirements, we want all travelers to be advised of the impacts to business as usual. Everyone needs to be patient, reevaluate their commute plans, add in extra travel time, and monitor traffic alerts for the latest information.”

Intermittent closures of freeways, regional arterials and downtown streets are expected. The flow of buses and cars in downtown Seattle and around the region will be disrupted.

Travelers in Seattle are advised to plan ahead and expect traffic delays on all three days. Those who can postpone trips downtown or work from home are encouraged to do so. Continue reading

Capitol Hill 2035 — Seattle’s next 20-year plan

The most interesting parts of the planning are the facts, figures, and datasets used to create the forecasts and predictions. Here's  a look at various predicted metrics for the four alternatives under consideration in the Seattle 2035 plan. The full report is at the end of this post.

The most interesting parts of the planning are the facts, figures, and datasets used to create the forecasts and predictions. Here’s a look at various predicted metrics for the four alternatives under consideration in the Seattle 2035 plan. The full report is at the end of this post.

The report is also full of tables and figures illustrating how Central Seattle neighborhoods stack up with the rest of the city

The report is also full of tables and figures illustrating how Central Seattle neighborhoods stack up with the rest of the city

If CHS understands the way this works correctly, back in 1995, City of Seattle planners predicted $15 cocktails, drones, the demolition of Piecora’s, and Anarchists. And they did nothing to stop it. The good news is there is a chance to help influence the next 20-year plan and what place Capitol Hill, First Hill, and the Central District play in Seattle 2035… and beyond.

If you’d like the “too long, didn’t skim” version, ready about Alternative 2 which is forecast to create the most new housing and jobs for Capitol Hill out of the four models under consideration. Meanwhile, housing affordability is brought up as a problem under all of the options, but for different reasons. Alternative 2 would likely lead to lots of new, tall buildings. These tend to be expensive to build, and end up with higher rents and higher priced condos. Alternatives 3 and 4, which spread the development to more areas, could see people who currently live near light rail stations (in particular lower-income people in south Seattle) displaced as their neighborhoods are rebuilt with shiny, new buildings. The proposal recommends developing “strategies” to help lessen the problem.

Screen Shot 2015-05-31 at 2.23.13 PM Screen Shot 2015-05-31 at 2.22.10 PMLast fall, CHS reported on some of the growth analysis underway as the city drafts a re-written Comprehensive Plan, the document that will shape growth and development through 2035. City planner expect there will be 70,000 new housing units over that time (housing 120,000 people) and 115,000 new jobs.

“It’s not a matter of if we’re going to grow, it’s how we’re going to grow.”

“It’s not a matter of if we’re going to grow, it’s how we’re going to grow,” said Deputy Mayor Kate Joncas at Wednesday’s May 27 public hearing on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the process. “Where do we want to channel that growth?”

To understand the possible changes, it’s best to understand how things work now. The city is divided up into different areas, and growth is channeled, in different amounts, into these villages.

There are six Urban Centers: Downtown, First/Capitol Hill, South Lake Union, Uptown (you might call it Lower Queen Anne), University District and Northgate. The first four of these are next to each other, creating what looks on a map like one big Urban Center.

Then there are Hub Urban Villages: Ballard, Bitter Lake, Fremont, Lake City, West Seattle Junction and Mount Baker.

Finally, there 18 Residential Urban Villages such as 23rd and Union-Jackson, Madison-Miller, Eastlake, Green Lake, Othello, Wallingford and Columbia City.

Other parts of town are either industrial, like the ports or Interbay, or none of the above, just low-density residential — the north part of Capitol Hill, Montlake or Phinney Ridge, for example.

Under the current plan, most of the growth is channeled to the Urban Centers (keep in mind, Capitol Hill is considered an urban Center) while a lot of the residential goes to the Hub villages and residential villages.

Seattle is considering four different options going forward, each of which mean a very different feel for the city as a whole, and for the Hill.

The City has identified four alternatives for consideration in this EIS. The alternatives assume the same level of total growth, but evaluate differing levels of growth emphases that may occur in various areas of the city, and with differing levels of resulting land use intensities. Each alternative emphasizes different patterns of projected future growth amount and intensity among the urban centers, urban villages and transit-related areas.

Alternative 1, Continue Current Trends (No Action), would plan for a continuation of current growth policies associated with the Urban Village Strategy along with a continuation of assumed trends that distribute growth among all of the urban centers and urban villages.

Alternative 2, Guide Growth to Urban Centers, prioritizes greater growth concentrations into the six existing urban centers—Downtown, First/Capitol Hill, University District, Northgate, South Lake Union and Uptown.

The emphasis in alternatives 3 and 4 is on providing opportunity for more housing and employment growth in areas closest to existing and planned transit service. Specifically:

Alternative 3, Guide Growth to Urban Villages near Light Rail, prioritizes greater growth concentrations around existing and planned light rail transit stations.

Alternative 4, Guide Growth to Urban Villages near Transit, prioritizes greater growth concentrations around light rail stations and in specific areas along priority bus transit routes. The boundaries of the existing urban villages would remain unchanged under both alterna- tives 1 and 2. alternatives 3 and 4 would result in expansions to some urban village bound- aries and the designation of one new urban village (at NE 130th Street/Interstate 5) in order to encompass a 10-minute walkshed around existing/planned future light rail stations and priority transit routes.

Alternative 1 means to basically keep doing what we have been doing. Under this scenario, the Urban Centers get 42% of the new housing and 61% of the new jobs. Continue reading

I-5 car fire under Pine St. sends smoke over Capitol Hill

(Image: SDOT)

(Image: SDOT)

A Tuesday morning car fire resulting from a four car collision on I-5 under the Pine St. overpass sent a plume of smoke over Capitol Hill and backed up traffic for miles in both directions on I-5.

The Washington State Patrol said investigators determined the 8:15 AM collision was caused by a distracted driver.

Medics transported one 67-year-old driver to the hospital as a precaution. Onlookers above I-5 captured images and video of the fire and brief rescue effort as Seattle Fire crews worked to extinguish the flames.

Shortly after the collision, all northbound I-5 traffic was diverted on to the Olive Way exit causing significant backups on Capitol Hill. Traffic began flowing again around 9 AM on I-5.

Traffic alert: ‘Emergency’ pavement repair E Olive Way just below Broadway

"Signs of our time on Capitol Hill Seattle" (Image: Kate Clark via Flickr)

“Signs of our time on Capitol Hill Seattle” (Image: Kate Clark via Flickr)

Expect a traffic pinch starting Saturday as work crews begin an emergency repair project to repair pavement on E Olive Way just west of Broadway. The work is slated to continue “into the work week” which we assume means Monday even though, sigh, CHS also works on the weekends.

Paving crews from the Seattle Department of Transportation will close a lane on Olive Way just west of Broadway for an emergency repair to the pavement beginning Saturday, Jan. 24 at 8 a.m. During the weekend the street will be restricted to one lane shared by both directions of traffic 24 hours a day. Police officers and traffic flaggers will assist drivers through the area.

SDOT crews will continue to work at this location into the work week, leaving one lane open in each direction, as they excavate and replace 12 concrete panels in the roadway.

Another reason to stay away from Bellevue

You can go to the Eastside if you like. You just might not make it back. A week of work on I-90 is expected to tangle traffic around the area as commuters are forced to find alternate routes to avoid planned lane closures. Here’s the word from SDOT on the start of things Friday night and through the weekend:

Traffic on freeways and major arterials into the city will be complicated by construction on WSDOT’s Interstate 90 — only one westbound lane of I90 will remain open between Bellevue and Mercer Island. There could be significant backups on alternate routes depending on how many drivers venture forth from the east side into downtown Seattle. For more information, see WSDOT’s website, http://tinyurl.com/l53s9cs.

Once the work week begins, CHS predict tie-ups in Capitol Hill chokepoints where coffee, wi-fi, and electrical outlets mix.

Weekend Capitol Hill streets report: Pine/Broadway closure, Denny Way work, ’emergency’ Melrose sewer project

Cars — even Fuschia Z-cars — and trucks and buses and motorscooters, etc. will find some challenging streets around Capitol Hill this weekend. Below are a few projects to plan your routes around.

  • Pine/Broadway detours: The busy intersection of Pine and Broadway will be closed to motor vehicles in all directions on Saturday and Sunday for more streetcar work. Vehicle traffic will be detoured around the intersection.

The intersection of East Pine Street and Broadway in the Capitol Hill Neighborhood will be closed to traffic on Saturday and Sunday, June 14-15. Closures will be from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. each day and are required for overhead electrical installations associated with construction of the First Hill Streetcar.
Continue reading

Traffic alert redux: More Pine/Broadway closures for streetcar work

First-hill-Streetcar-Graphic-RESIZETotally worth it when the line opens mid-2014! Same deal as last weekend:

Intersection closure at East Pine Street and Broadway

Nov 9-10, 16-17

SEATTLE —The intersection of East Pine Street and Broadway in the Capitol Hill Neighborhood will be closed to traffic on two upcoming weekends: Nov 9-10 and Nov. 16-17. Closures will be from 5 a.m. until 10 p.m. each day and are required for overhead electrical installations associated with the First Hill Streetcar project.  The intersection will be closed to motorized traffic in all directions though it will be open to pedestrians and cyclists.

The following detours will be provided:

Westbound traffic on East Pine Street will be directed either north on 12th Avenue to East John Street or south on 12th Avenue to East Pike Street.

+ Eastbound traffic on East Pine Street will be directed either south on Bellevue Avenue to East Pike Street or north on Bellevue Avenue to East Olive Way/East John Street.

+ Southbound traffic on Broadway will be directed either east on East Olive Way to 12th Avenue South or west on East John Street/East Olive Way to Bellevue Avenue.

+ Northbound traffic on Broadway will be directed either east on at East Pike Street to 12th Avenue or west on East Pike Street to Bellevue Avenue.

Local traffic and access to businesses will be maintained and flaggers and Police Officers will be on hand to assist with traffic and pedestrians.

When complete, the First Hill Streetcar Line will have ten stations along a two and one-half mile route from South Jackson Street and Occidental Avenue South to Broadway and Denny Way. The City of Seattle is developing the First Hill Streetcar in partnership with Sound Transit, with funding provided through the 2008 voter approved Sound Transit 2 (ST2) transit expansion plan.  Completion is planned for mid- 2014. For further information, visit the project website at

http://www.seattlestreetcar.org.