Monday, February 4, 2013

Mission accomplished in Washington Park


Multiple projects completed (finally)


The seemingly never-ending Madison Valley Stormwater Project ended with a whimper last month as the finishing touches were completed on the Project's final phase, landscaping of the water tank in Washington Park. The area is now open to the public through a new pedestrian pathway which snakes its way from the sidewalk at E. Madison Street down into the Park:


We're told that the fencing around the newly-landcaped hillside is temporary.  Also now completed and ready for use is the new playfield next to the water tank area:


Meanwhile, the CIty has also completed work along Lake Washington Boulevard though the Arboretum.  Two separate projects had been underway there, one involving "traffic mitigation" and the other improving the lighting along the Bouvelard.


Anyone who's driven through the Arboretum at night has certainly noticed the improved visibility resulting from the lighting project.  As to the "traffic mitigation" efforts of SDOT, well they're literally hard to miss:


[Lighting and mitigation photos courtesy of the Seattle Department of Transportation, via Flickr.]

10 comments:

  1. Finally, right? Thank god I've never missed a schedule by 1.5 yrs.....HA!

    Love the traffic improvements down there. I'd like to entertain the idea of a stop sign at boyer and I think the city got a little overzealous with the stre light spacing. The lamps are extremely bright and only 30' between them.....Thanks for the article Mr. Tagas!

    tj

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  2. More speed humps please. It would help with Boyer traffic as well. One each straight-a-way would probably do it. 90% of the traffic thinks its some sort private short cut (read Autobahn), not the serene park that it actually is.

    Perhaps there is just not 'enough' light on the speed signs?

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  3. I wish the city would would improve the lake wa blvd and madison st. intersection now, a few cars turning to madison park and traffic backs up southbound to boyer st., and one car from Bush turning west on madison in the morning backs up north bound lwb also.

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  4. That word... Boulevard - just gets me. Maybe that's where the confusion this is a quick way to get somewhere comes in?

    ...usually a wide, multi-lane arterial thoroughfare, divided with a median down the centre, and roadways along each side designed as slow travel and parking lanes and for bicycle and pedestrian usage, often with an above-average quality of landscaping and scenery...
    from, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulevard

    Other then the landscaping and scenery how does this slow 25 mph cruising road through a park qualify?

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  5. I can't wait until they close the 520 on/off-ramps at the north end of the Arboretum. Since people will not be able to use the Arboretum as a shortcut to/from 520, it will eliminate most of the rush-hour traffic and greatly improve traffic flow and the Madison intersection.

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  6. Will cars be able to access 520 via LWB to Montlake, then get on 520? If so, closing the ramps will do nothing to help traffic flow at Madison and Arboretum.

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    1. Yes, you will still be able to use LWB to get to Montlake, and thereby access 520. However, the Arboretum is petitioning to have traffic through there severely restricted. We did a story on this a year or so ago. You can find the posting by clicking on Arboretum in the index in the right-hand column of this site.

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  7. How about we extend the end of Madison via a connecting bridge with fly-over to 520 so you can enter/exit 520 right from the end of Madison!

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  8. The closing of the 520 on/off ramps is going to isolate mad park and make it feel like magnolia or west seattle. The easy freeway access made the neighborhood feel more like a part of the city.

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  9. Madison Park is literally a dead end and is already more isolated then the two areas above, with or without the ramps in the arboretum.

    Magnolia you can drive through and enter and exit from both ends in multiple ways. West Seattle is a huge area and has multiple large roadways entering and exiting it from all directions.

    When you drive into Madison Park, which main roadway do you use to go back the other way? Do you have another choice?

    Making another bridge that extends Madison across the lake would be the only thing that would change that. Until Madison is a place you can drive 'through' on the way to somewhere else nothing will change its isolation factor.

    It's like that small town on an old highway that got forgotten when they built the interstate; dieing a slow death.

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