SDOT plans to paint over Convention Center street art that won’t come off 9th Ave.

The Seattle Convention Center painted nearly 40 brightly colored circles and five white lines along 9th Ave. earlier this year for its summer festival, branded Market at the Marquee.

KIRO Newsradio broke the news earlier this week that the Seattle Convention Center has struggled so much to remove the paint that it had to keep the street closed two weeks past its permit deadline.

The Seattle Department of Transportation, which granted the Seattle Convention Center the permit to paint the street, now has a plan to fix the problem. Paint over the paint.

This is what SDOT told me late Friday.

“SDOT and the Seattle Convention Center had a productive meeting today on reopening 9th Ave.,” a spokesperson stated. “Next steps include both near-term and long-term solutions. Near-term, the artwork will be covered up – most likely with paint. Then lane markings can be applied on top so the street is ready for traffic. We will be able to give an update on progress next week.”

Longer term, the artwork will most likely be ground off and the street surface repaired and restriped. In the meantime, drivers are asked to detour to 7th Ave. to access Pike St. and the I-5 express lanes.

There is still no timeline on when the street will reopen or when the grinding will happen. There is also no information on who will pay for this mistake.

9th Ave. was closed in late July.

Why is this street so vital? It provides direct access to the I-5 Express Lanes.

Drivers report losing 10-15 minutes a day accessing those lanes, and they have been experiencing that for six weeks and counting.

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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