December 17

SDOT answers readers' new sidewalk concerns

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Now that the crosswalks on Roosevelt Way Northeast are finished, it’s time to talk sidewalks again.

Last month when we posted photos of the completed sidewalk from Northeast 94th to 97th streets on 15th Avenue Northeast, a lot of our readers grumbled about their design. We asked Thérèse Casper with the Seattle Department of Transportation to elaborate on some of their concerns.

She explained that the department has been working with the Maple Leaf Community Council for several years to try to get more sidewalks in the neighborhood, and that the requests typically are for these lower-cost walkways simply to make the money stretch a little further. Although she was unable to provide exact figures for the same stretch made with concrete sidewalks with a curb, she estimates it would have cost at least twice as much.

But that wasn’t the only reason a curb wasn’t added. There also isn’t room on the existing right of way, Casper said, which also is the reason the ditches are open in some places, yet covered in others. She writes:

Some ditches remain open as Seattle Public Utilities wants to maintain open ditchs to protect the health of Seattle’s creek system. The ditch was only converted to pipes in places where there was otherwise no room for a walkway with a buffer from the roadway.

And regarding concerns about erosion, Casper notes:

During a large rainstorm following soon after construction finished, SDOT staff noticed some run-off from the side streets entering the new ditch along its own path – not through the swales. The jute-matting that was installed in the new ditch to prevent erosion before grass seed grows was able to prevent this run-off from eroding the ditch as well.

In the comments from the earlier post, Debi said her parents were told sidewalks were on their way “in a few years” when they moved to Maple Leaf in 1963. With that in mind, it seems like maybe we should just feel lucky we have anything at all.

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  1. @ Mike SDOT has a schedule, but not regular. If you notice them start to have debris you should call.

    @Simon Seattle required sidewalks. King County did not. Seattle ended at 85th, so that’s why S Maple Leaf generally has sidewalks and N. Maple Leaf does not.

    Personal opinion below…

    Politicians promise sidewalks to North Seattle to get elected, then laugh and complain about the expense once they are voted in.

    Over the next decade, SPU has to redo much of the sewer system in the north end to comply with state and federal clean water regulations. The biggest cost of doing sidewalks is redoing the drainage underneath. Since utility dollars will now be available for the drainage remodel, the *incremental* cost of installing sidewalks is much, much lower.

    This poses a huge opportunity for Seattle to get sidewalks for north and SE Seattle residents who want them using far fewer general fund dollars than before.

    It is about priorities. If we want walkable communities, seems to me a good place to start would be providing sidewalks for walking.

  2. You can see these ditches are filling with debris quickly….will SDOT clean them out on a regular schedule? I can tell you they don’t elsewhere! Last winter I had to call them when a clogged drainage ditch was diverting a large amount of runoff from 15th which was washing out driveways. One year later the ditch is about to clogged again.

  3. Apparently in the 1930s through the 1950s, it was considered fashionable to live in an area without sidewalks (the implication being that, since everyone could afford a car, no sidewalks were needed = a more well-to-do area). But then in the 1960s and 1970s sidewalks became fashionable again and near as I can tell have been ever since, and the city should have been putting them in in Maple Leaf for the past 30 years now.

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