A nearly year-long closure of Market Street for repaving is scheduled to start this summer, but a group of Ballard businesses are requesting that the City hit pause on the project while they recover from pandemic closures.
The Ballard Alliance says that more than 100 business owners in Ballard have signed a letter urging Mayor Jenny Durkan to push back the paving plans while business financially rebuild after being closed for COVID-19.
The group of businesses are asking the City to wait 18 months to start work on the NW Market Street Paving Project that would close off NW Market St from 24th Ave NW to 15th Ave NW. The work would entail 12-hour work days, seven days a week for nearly a year, and would include curb-to-curb repaving work from SDOT, plus utility trenching from Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle City Light.
“Ballard small businesses have already endured a long closure and repaving of NW Market Street from 24th Ave NW to 32nd Ave NW, which is now 10 months overdue and still not complete,” the Ballard Alliance said in a statement. “Businesses large and small experienced devastating reductions in sales (pre-COVID) due to this repaving work, including an estimated loss of more than $700,000 in sales during curb-to-curb
construction in front of their businesses. And this loss occurred before the coronavirus pandemic.”
The City has reportedly been steadfast in their timeline for the project, and according to the project website, Market Street in its current condition, “continues to be a major generator of pothole repair requests and complaints from the public asking that we repair the road as a matter of public safety.”
SDOT says that once complete, the road will be made from a durable concrete pavement that they expect will not require any major work for 50 years.
However, small business owners say that if the street closure and repaving goes ahead as planned, “it could be a preventable tipping point that forces permanent closures for Ballard businesses already facing monumental financial challenges due to COVID-19.”
Many Ballard businesses have placed signs in their windows that say, “Recovery Now! Repave Later!”
“Adding COVID-19 to this challenging scenario and then extending the street closure for nearly a year to an even busier stretch of Market Street is simply asking more than businesses can bear,” the Alliance says.
You can learn more about the Alliance’s effort to delay the project here.
Photo: Ballard Alliance
This just makes good sense. I hope the businesses get their way.
Recovery Now! Repave Later!” Lets go Ballard it is your turn to speak up, send an email to durkin, or are you just going to spend your time correcting people’s speech and ranting about the homeless? Lets make it easy, copy and paste “Recovery Now! Repave Later!”
send to…https://www.seattle.gov/mayor. I do my share of pissing and moaning
lets try “fixing” instead.
You don’t send things to a website URL, terryj. You send them to an email address which, in this case, is jenny.durkan@seattle.gov And I’m a step ahead of you…I emailed her and Dan O’Brien about this earlier this morning.
Just remember to address the mayor as ” Dear, Tear-Gas Jenny Durkan”.
the link i used goes to her site that has her email. engage your brain before flapping your lips.
and by the way don’t kid yourself you’re ahead of no one. that’s why you were abandoned
at birth.
Not very nice. Standard here though. And THIS is “tolerance Seattle style”. Beautiful. Brilliant. Most of all; inclusive.
Oh boy, Paintking accusing others of being not nice, that’s classic!
No. Nothing “makes sense” any longer, nothing. The theoreticians running the show are inept at best. The ONLY thing most have EVER run is a campaign and their big fat mouths. But please do keep playing the gender and ID politics game, as it’s so much fun SELECTING all the correct idiots . Defund SDOT while at it. Defund your nannies though first.
I hope they repave. It’s been a long time coming and there’s never a good time. It does seem odd that it will take so long, but then Seattle makes streets to a very high standard. Maybe we need to look at different and faster kinds of streets?
This is intolerable. Defund SDOT Now!
A serious note. I know we poke fun at each other here, I believe its in good fun. We are all Bllardites here. So
I would like to invite you to a BBQ at my House Sat afternoon, i will supply all, including beer and wine and mixers if you want booze. 3pm informal for sure. See you then, looking forward to seeing you, even you westerngirl :) :)
terryj – I’d love to come, what is the address?
But, but, but what about “collusion” here? I hope you have a broad and inclusive selection/representation of Ballard too. Poke away.
Sounds reasonable, which means the city will ignore them.
How “reasonable” it is depends on contracts that have been signed, what escape clauses were negotiated and the level of mobilization that has happened. Not to mention the hundreds of construction jobs that would disappear.
I’m not saying it can’t be done and I’m not saying it shouldn’t be done. It’s just not as easy as just saying “let’s delay construction” and pat ourselves on the back. This isn’t the first time in history that a major arterial through a major retail area has needed reconstruction.
We want our businesses to succeed, especially during the pandemic and resulting recession. We also can’t let our critical infrastructure continue to fail. There’s a happy medium that can balance both needs.
Personally, I think SDOT should renegotiate to a longer construction schedule that would pivot construction to a one lane at a time construction schedule instead of curb to curb construction schedule. Work with businesses to reduce or eliminate financial impacts, via funds if necessary. The cost to taxpayers of cancelling or delaying construction would be at least an order of magnitude more than financially assisting businesses.
Also, have you tried just asking Dan out on a date rather than playing hard to get?
“We want our businesses to succeed, especially during the pandemic and resulting recession” Apparently your from Maltby (sorry Maltby) When they repave the street there will be NO PARKING, you may not even get to approach the store. This was what happened with the “repaving” west of 24th. That HURTS Business. AS the Local Lumber yard said on their Billboard
welcome to “THe NIghtmare on Market Street” are you understanding yet. We will need to have a talk at the BBQ.
Apparently your from Maltby (sorry Maltby)
They have an amazing cafe, I’d recommend visiting sometime when you’re able! Prepare for a wait though…
I don’t drive, but most small towns have good food.
Based on their previous project down by the locks I wouldn’t be surprised if they decide to close the street while they take six months to decide whether to delay the project.
It’s funny people think in 18 months everything will be back to normal. And nothing like starting a roadway reconstruction project in December! Do these business owners live in Phoenix and have no clue about seasonal weather in Washington?
But yes let’s delay the project so tax payers can get hosed over another 18 months of cost escalation, and we can wait for the labor market to potentially fully recover and costs go back to sky high.
How about we use this opportunity to advance a badly needed project, at a lower cost, and get people back to work quickly?
Recession or boom time there is never a good time for construction closures. If businesses want a real solution talk with the Council and Mayor and propose a transparent requirement for mitigation during construction closures.
Seattle doesn’t have a road construction season like other places around the country. Our mild winters allow construction and road work to continue.
Another advantage for the delay would be to address the overruns and delays from the first phase of the project. The work down by the locks was a complete mess. If they can conduct a review of that in the mean time the savings to the tax payers could be significant.
We absolutely have a construction season…officially for road work between April-September. While we don’t have a freeze/thaw concern we have major water/runoff concerns in the winter and longer daylight periods in the summer reduces safety risks and lengthens working hours without costly lighting support.
Furthermore commodity and resource availability is seasonal with greater availability and lower prices in the summer months. Studies for roadway construction in WA have shown that winter work increases project costs by 20-30%.
your lying to TRY and make your point. go away. or better yet go to Capitol Hill
“How about we use this opportunity to advance a badly needed project, at a lower cost, and get people back to work quickly?”How do they get back to work quickly with NO CUSTOMERS.
There will be NO PARKING for customers and NO most people drive, especially when shopping.
Seattle Government NEVER lowers a cost,never. As to “Badly needed” Given this street has NOT been improved in decades it is NOT BADLY NEEDED.
The whisperings of a mad man…seek help?
Man this is a boring topic, and you all love it! Sad.
well i live in Ballard. I like it better with business OPEN, re-paving NOW will delay if not stop them from opening. So it’s not boring to the Business’s. If youe bored that east, go away.
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