Section of 29th Avenue in Leschi to receive traffic calming improvements

A portion of 29th Avenue in Leschi will receive traffic calming improvements as identified and voted on by Seattle District 3 residents through a participatory budgeting program.

This was the second year of the City of Seattle’s Your Voice, Your Choice: Parks and Streets program, which allows community members to identify, assess and vote on small-scale park and street improvements in their neighborhoods.

Each council district was allotted $285,000 for its Your Voice, Your Choice budget, and seven projects ended up receiving funding in District 3. The program is administered by the Department of Neighborhoods.

The largest award was $90,000 for sidewalk repairs on Summit Avenue in First Hill, followed by crossing improvements on East Aloha Street and 14th Avenue East in Capitol Hill — $83,298.

Traffic calming on 29th Avenue South, between East Yesler Way and East Alder Street, will cost $16,100, and received 148 votes through Your Voice, Your Choice.

SDOT approved the project, which is expected to be constructed in 2019, and will include installing speed humps, according to a 2018 project review sheet.

There are many driveways and few overhead lights along that stretch of 29th Avenue, SDOT notes in its review sheet “that may be problematic for siting speed humps,” but that is the traffic control measure being recommended.

Used as a cut-through to avoid Martin Luther King, Jr. Way during rush hour, “cars regularly speed down this stretch of road at 30-35 mph,” according to the sheet, with a mid-week average of 600 vehicles per day.

With Leschi Elementary and Powell Burnett Park both two blocks from the project site, SDOT reports a lot of pedestrian traffic in the area, particularly children.

SDOT explored allowing parking on both sides of the street to encourage traffic calming, but determined the road was not wide enough.

Construction is expected to include urban forestry, signs, markings and traffic controls.