Light-rail construction dragging down MLK Way

Q: Try driving Martin Luther King Jr. Way South through South Seattle. That ought to be enough for you to realize why some area residents size it up as a war zone.

The street, a multiple-lane main drag through the area, is torn up — and has been for more than a year — as a result of Sound Transit's light-rail construction project.

Residents and drivers complain about potholes in the road, some patched and repatched so often the pavement has become miserably uneven. Then there are the lane diversions and lack of lane markings.

"The roadway, particularly in intersections, is torn up and asphalted over repeatedly as part of this construction," South Seattle resident Connie Cox lamented recently. Lane markings are either nonexistent or so faint they can't be seen at night or in foul weather during the day, she says.

"[I] have found myself in what I thought was a turn lane, only to find oncoming traffic headed directly [at] me. And intersections are horrendous."

Cox, who has lived in the area for eight years, asked whether there are any regulations regarding maintenance or the updating of lane markings during a construction project, and whose responsibility it is to monitor the problem.

A: For some South Seattle residents, there may be no way of escaping the MLK mess. Even those who can avoid traveling that street find it difficult getting through intersections along MLK Way to reach other streets.

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Sound Transit spokesman Geoff Patrick says the situation will improve.

But probably not for several months.

The project isn't scheduled to be completed until mid-2007, but Patrick says street improvements should be apparent by the end of this year.

The four miles of construction zone along MLK is part of Sound Transit's future light-rail line between downtown Seattle and Sea-Tac Airport. That puts South Seattle in the heart of it — with the MLK corridor torn up from the north end of Rainier Valley, near South McClellan Street, south to the Boeing Access Road.

The finished product will be light rail in a median down the center of MLK, with four stations serving Rainier Valley.

Before it's done, though, streets are being torn up to bury utility lines, create the median and eventually lay the tracks.

While it's Sound Transit's project, Seattle's Department of Transportation (SDOT) is in on the work and should be monitoring street problems.

"It is city policy to have lane markings on open streets in place at all times," said Wayne Wentz, the department's acting director of traffic management.

He says that the recent excessive rain has prevented reinstallation of pavement markings along that street and elsewhere in the city. But that doesn't explain the lack of lane markings before the continual rains started.

Wentz said contractors, whose plans are approved by SDOT, should be using additional traffic-control devices when markings cannot be applied and existing pavement markings are sufficiently worn as to be indistinguishable.

Perhaps more monitoring is needed.

Patrice Gillespie Smith, SDOT's chief of staff, says the city, in recent weeks, issued four citations to the contractor on the MLK project.

"We also feel very strongly that if they cannot correct their problems, we will have to increase our penalties," she said. "We will take more severe actions if necessary."

Added Gillespie Smith: "A contractor cannot flagrantly ignore state and city safety regulations, and we will take appropriate actions if they continue to do so."

Said Sound Transit's Patrick: "We need to make sure our contractor is complying with the traffic plan that has been approved."

Q: Former Madison Park resident Ebb Pate now makes his home in Kirkland. But that hasn't stopped him from wondering about the reason for back-in parking in Seattle.

"It is the only place I have ever been that uses this quirky method," he said. "In general, people are not very adept at backing into a space with accuracy, and there is often encroachment into adjoining spaces.

"It takes them longer to negotiate the parking, thus holding up traffic."

In his view, traditional head-in parking is easier to get into, and when exiting there is a whole street lane to back out into.

A: According to Seattle's Department of Transportation, national research has shown that collisions occur three times more frequently with head-in angled parking than with back-in parking.

A department spokesman said there may be several reasons for that.

For one, when leaving a back-in space, it is easier and safer to pull forward into a travel lane than to back out into moving traffic, the spokesman said.

For another, when parking in a back-in space, a driver is controlling traffic when he or she stops to back in.

The city also figures it is safer for pedestrians and bicyclists when motorists are backing into an area (the parking spot) that they know is clear. Finally, said the spokesman, the time required to maneuver back into a space is typically less than the time it takes to parallel park or to back out of an angled stall.

The spokesman said the city follows guidelines in the Institute for Traffic Engineers Handbook. The only locations where the city considers head-in angled parking are on one-way downhill streets.