Our recent stretch of dry weather has allowed the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) to begin an annual rite of summer – restriping of arterial street lane lines, remarking crosswalks and bike lanes and sharrows. Dry weather is critical to allowing the markings to adhere to the surface which in turn helps them last longer. Most years, this window of opportunity is between April and October and as we all know this can vary from year to year! In most years, you can expect to see a lot of work happening around the city during this critical time period!
A large portion of funding for SDOT’s restriping work is provided by Bridging the Gap (BTG), a nine-year transportation levy passed by voters in 2006. Restriping work is a critical piece to keeping our roads safe and thanks to BTG we will restripe 1,148 arterial street lane-miles, remark 300 crosswalks and maintain 40 miles of on-street bicycle facilities in 2012. Since BTG began in 2007, SDOT has restriped 5,400 arterial street lane-miles, remarked more than 3,600 crosswalks and maintained more than 100 miles of on-street bicycle facilities.
As the restriping season kicks into high gear, please remember to give crews plenty of space and follow any detours or temporary reroutes that have been established. Crews are working quickly to cover a lot of ground in a short time frame and will soon move on to another location.
Please visit the Bridging the Gap web page for additional information about the program.