Seattle will attempt to stop road from sliding into Lake Washington
Feb 11, 2016, 11:21 PM | Updated: May 6, 2016, 11:22 pm
The hills and views surrounding the Puget Sound are great to admire from your living room, but not so great when wet weather starts to erode those hills away.
The north stretch of Sand Point Way in Seattle is currently closed, you know, because the road could slide into Lake Washington. North of Magnuson Park, one section of the slope has gradually slipped about 4 feet downhill. The landslide area being watched happens to be a driveway above a multimillion dollar home. We’ve been told the homeowners are living in the house for now.
The Seattle Transportation Department has confirmed, “This particular section of slope rests both under and behind a city owned retaining wall which supports one shoulder of Sand Point Way NE (a key north-south arterial in NE Seattle), a 16 inch diameter water main and access for the adjoining property.”
A new wall is slated for construction, and will be deep enough to reach stable soils to prevent future slippage. The job will require relocating overhead utilities (electrical power, fiber optic, phone and cable) and installing a temporary bypass for the vulnerable water main.
While this work is underway near NE 85th Street, traffic on Sand Point Way NE will be detoured to 35th Avenue NE, via NE 95th Street and NE 70th Street. Traffic signals along the route have been re-timed to help with the additional volumes, however, neighbors have already been complaining of increased traffic around many schools in the View Ridge and Wedgwood neighborhoods.
The southbound lane of Sand Point Way NE will be reopened to traffic past the ongoing construction in early in March, but the northbound lane isn’t expected to reopen again until April.
