Seattle City Light will be by replacing electrical ducts and cable between Columbia and Cherry streets along First Avenue downtown. Seattle City Light is continuing its work to upgrade the city’s electrical system in order to maintain and increase service reliability with a project between Columbia and Cherry streets along First Avenue downtown.
Crews plan to demolish old clay electrical ducts and replace them with new, larger ducts as well as more efficient and reliable electrical cable.
The duct removal and replacement phase of the work is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, Sept. 4 and will continue for two months, with a typical schedule of 9:00 am to 3:30 pm. There will be some after-hours work to promote access in the work zone. The second phase involves crews pulling cable, which will have less of an impact on the local area, as crews need only a step van and then pull cable from the underground vaults.
There will be impacts to customers in the area while the work is underway. While crews will only be trenching to replace the ducts on the west side of the street, customers throughout the block will be affected by temporary traffic reroutes. In order to keep traffic flowing, the east parking lane will be used for vehicle travel. The west parking lane will be blocked off as part of the work zone. Uniformed police officers will assist with traffic.
This project does not involve any scheduled power outages. We do not anticipate any sidewalk impacts. There will be some noise as crews open up the street with machinery and remove the ducts.
Thank you for your patience during this construction. For more information, contact Mark VanOss, Public Information Specialist, at (206) 684-3279, or Bob Hansen, Project Manager, at (206) 684-3387. You can also visit our website at: http://www.seattle.gov/light/aboutus/construction/