9th Avenue reopens after Convention Center’s paint job kept it closed for weeks

9th Avenue between Pine and Pike Streets reopened Wednesday after paint on the road shut it down since late July.

The Seattle Convention Center had closed the street for a summer festival and was supposed to reopen it by Sept. 4.

KIRO Newsradio broke the story last week that the paint the Convention Center used to make the street look pretty couldn’t be removed, keeping the road closed for weeks longer than the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) street closure permit allowed.

The short-term plan was to paint over all the pretty circles and five vertical white stripes with black paint and then add lane markings. The long-term plan was to grind off the paint and repave.

“Restriping requires dry weather, and the forecast makes this more challenging,” Ethan Bergerson, the press secretary for SODT, told KIRO Newsradio. “We do not have an exact time estimate when the street will reopen, but our goal is to complete this as quickly as possible within the next several days. In the meantime, drivers are asked to detour to 7th Ave to access Pike St and the I-5 express lanes.”

Workers were out early Wednesday morning painting over the bright circles with black paint, so now the street is covered with black circles.

“We’re in continual communication with the Convention Center, and they have agreed that they will pay the costs of any work that needs to be done by SDOT crews,” Bergerson added.

Why is this closure such a big deal?

9th Avenue provides direct access to the I-5 express lanes, which is vital during the Revive I-5 work. Drivers are reporting that the closure is adding 10-15 minutes to their daily drives, and that is really adding up into our seventh week of the closure.

Chris Sullivan is a traffic reporter for KIRO Newsradio. Read more of his stories here. Follow KIRO Newsradio traffic on X.

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