Seattle City Light will install two new conduits (duct banks) across Columbia Street, one at 4th and the other at 5th Avenue.
The project is part of our ongoing work to upgrade the city’s electrical system in order to maintain and increase service reliability. Crews plan to excavate across Columbia Street and install the new, larger duct banks. The work will be done one duct bank at a time.
Projected Duration/Timing: We have now completed the construction of the duct bank closest to 4th Avenue and have moved onto the one at 5th Avenue. It’s expected that this duct bank will take approximately four weeks to complete. Our daily work schedule is Monday through Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. with some weekend work possible.
Project Impacts: This project does not involve any scheduled power outages. Crews plan to maintain a travel lane through the work zone on Columbia. Traffic exiting from the freeway and turning down Columbia may experience some delays. Signage will be in placed on 6th Avenue to alert traffic.
Some on-street parking will be lost on both sides of Columbia due to construction staging. “No Park” signage will affect the block between 5th and 6th. Once the civil construction is done and at a later date, crews will install new cable over several days. This work will be much less intrusive, involving up to two trucks and lineworkers pulling cable into place and working inside the underground vaults. The trucks will take up some parking space and the work will impact traffic flow, but is not expected to require extensive lane restrictions.
12/21/2012 Update: The civil construction portion of this project is now complete.
