New report says 36 percent of Seattle streets in lousy shape

If it seems like your drive around Seattle is a lot bumpier at times these days, you’re probably right. The city says more streets than ever are in bad shape.

The Seattle Department of Transportation has just completed a survey of the 1,574 lane miles of arterial streets across the city, and found 36 percent are in what SDOT classifies as poor condition or worse. Ten percent of the most heavily driven streets were in “seriously poor or failed condition.”

Elizabeth Shelton, the interim director of SDOT’s street maintenance department, says that’s almost three times more than in 2010.

Some of the cracked, rutted or potholed pavement needs complete reconstruction, some just an overlay of asphalt or other preventative maintenance. Shelton says in all, the price tag for covering the backlog of all the deferred maintenance to fix the roads is nearly $970 million – $400 million more than just three years ago.

“We just haven’t had the funding to keep pace with the need out there,” she says.

So why are the streets in such bad shape? Age is a big factor, says Shelton.

“They’ve been overlaid with asphalt from time to time but a lot of them are still the original streets from the 1920’s.”

The city can’t fix everything. Shelton says the department emphasizes where its investments bring the most good to the most users.

“We try to focus on the streets that have the most transit, the most cars, the most heavily traveled, that have bike lanes, and try to balance that with the pavement condition and basically getting the most bang for the buck.”

Just because a road is in terrible shape doesn’t mean it gets all the attention. Shelton says her team devotes a good portion of its budget to maintaining streets in fair condition before conditions get worse, saving money in the long run.

Among the worst arterials in the city are the stretch of Greenwood Avenue north of 105th Street; 24th Avenue, south of the 520 floating bridge; 10th Avenue East, through Capitol Hill; and 35th Avenue Southwest in West Seattle, Shelton says.

SDOT hopes to have the findings of the survey compiled in a final report to the City Council by the end of the year.

Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, chair of the Transportation Committee, tells the Seattle Weekly it’s likely the Council will go back to voters to re-authorize the 2007 voter-approved “Bridging the Gap” levy, a $365 million measure that paid for a number of transportation projects including street repaving or replacement. It is set to expire at the end of 2015.