SEATTLE — 9th Avenue between Pine and Pike Streets was supposed to open Sept. 4 after the Seattle Convention Center shut it down for a summer festival.
KIRO Newsradio broke the story last week that the paint the Convention Center used to make the street look pretty couldn’t be removed, keeping the road closed for weeks longer than the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) street closure permit allowed.
The plan is to paint over all the pretty circles and five vertical white stripes with black paint and then add lane markings in the short term. The long-term plan is to grind off the paint and repave.
Workers were out early this morning painting over the bright circles with black paint, so now the street is covered with black circles. Still not drivable, but it’s a start.
I reached out to SDOT for an updated timeline on when the road will reopen. I have not heard back at this point, early in the fix. I also asked SDOT whether the Convention Center will be responsible for covering the costs of repainting the street and the eventual grinding and repaving. No answer on that yet.
Why is this closure such a big deal?
9th Avenue provides direct access to the I-5 express lanes, which is vital during the Revive I-5 work. Drivers are reporting that the closure is adding 10-15 minutes to their daily drives, and that is really adding up into our seventh week of the closure.
Chris Sullivan is a traffic reporter for KIRO Newsradio. Read more of his stories here. Follow KIRO Newsradio traffic on X.