TxDOT to repair US 290 flyovers this week

Drivers should expect overnight closures on two flyovers connecting US 290 East and Interstate 35 over central Austin this week.

https://www.kxan.com/traffic/txdot-to-repair-us-290-flyovers-this-week/

#Traffic #Austin #Local #News #TopStories #Closures #Detours #Flyovers #I35 #Kxan #Txdot

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http://bargain-sleuth.com/2025/12/26/%f0%9f%8e%a7%f0%9f%93%9adetours-hope-growth-after-lifes-hardest-turns-by-elizabeth-smart-bookreview-rbmedia-arcreview-selfhelp-truecrime/

Alert 10/22-11/18: Snoqualmie Valley Trail bridge closed for emergency repairs south of Duvall, no detour provided

Inspectors “found significant rot” and closed a small bridge on the Snoqualmie Valley Trail south of Duvall about halfway between NE 138th and 124th Streets. King County Parks immediately closed the structure — lovingly named Bridge 2178-15 — for safety reasons October 22, noting that “no detour is available.”

Just a few days after the closure, King County Parks has now announced the repair plan. Crew will begin work October 28, and repairs are expected to take about three weeks to complete. That would put reopening around November 18 if all goes according to schedule. There will be no detour during this time, the department said.

You can find updates for this and other King County Parks projects on their Backyard FunFinder map.

Detour options

In what is a frustrating pattern with King County Parks, the department will not be signing a detour let alone creating any sort of temporary space to help trail users get around the closure safely. This happens too often, and it is not acceptable to leave trail users completely on their own to navigate dangerous traffic conditions. King County needs to treat our regional trails as transportation routes, and that means developing a trail detour policy. The county would never close a road without at least signing a detour, so why should trails be treated any differently?

Options for getting around this trail are pretty much limited to using the shoulders on Carnation-Duvall Road NE. Maps show a private road that crosses the trail just north of the closure, but it has a fence at the main road so is likely not a good option. Instead, users will need to access the trail at NE 138th and 124th Streets. Unlike too many roads in the region with two hyphenated place names, this one at least has consistent shoulders on both sides. The trickiest part is likely the roundabout at NE 124th Street, a horrible double-lane design with no bike lanes or sidewalks. Roundabouts can be a tool for safer streets, but not if they’re designed with only cars in mind like this one. Note that users of the main road can continue “straight” in either lane, which may not be what you expect. Proceed with extreme caution.

This is a great example of why King County Parks needs a better detour policy. With just a little work, like clearing out overgrowth and maybe adding some quick pavement to barely widen the sidewalk space on the northwest corner and the first hundred feet or so to the north, they could create a usable walking and biking connection between the roadway shoulders and the existing crosswalk to nowhere on the north side of the roundabout. This could also allow trail users to avoid the roundabout and instead use the crosswalks. Remember, not all trail users are riding bikes, and the existing space appears barely too skinny for chairs. Detour signage could also help trail users and drivers both understand where folks will be crossing. People will be traveling through here whether King County Parks creates a detour or not. I don’t understand why the department thinks saying, “No detour is available,” is an effective solution. There will be people who never read this notice and are surprised by the closure. They deserve guidance for getting around it at the very least.

More details from King County Parks:

The 2178-15 bridge – located near Duvall Park on the Snoqualmie Valley Trail – is closed due to safety concerns after a routine inspection found significant rot. No detour is available. […]

Earlier this week, King County Parks was notified that bridge 2178-15 along the Snoqualmie Valley Trail would need to be closed due to safety concerns […]. Parks anticipates beginning repairs on October 28. The repairs will take approximately 3 weeks and will not require any in-ground work. This portion of the Snoqualmie Valley Trail will be closed during these repairs.

#SEAbikes #Seattle

Otago and Southland flooding closes SH90, detours in place

MetService has issued an orange heavy rain watch for the headwaters of the Otago lakes and rivers from…
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https://www.newsbeep.com/164712/

Alert: New Burke-Gilman Trail detour at Stone Way is not bikeable or accessible – UPDATED

UPDATE: SPU wrote to say that as of Friday morning, the intersection detour returned to its previous state. “I’m writing to let you know that SPU removed the detour today at 7 a.m.,” spokesperson Brad Wong wrote. “This specific area has returned to the status it’s been for the past six weeks. The removal was part of the project workplan. We expect to fully reopen the intersection of North 34th Street and Stone Way North in mid to late October.”

The detour in place as of Wednesday afternoon (September 25) to get people walking and biking on either N 34th Street or the Burke-Gilman Trail has no crosswalk and no curb ramp, leaving users of the region’s most popular trail without any clear direction or safe option to get to the other side.

I just happened to be riding down N 34th Street today when crews were changing the detour at the intersection with Stone Way N and the Burke-Gilman Trail. They routed us down the sidewalk and onto N Northlake Way, a street without bike lanes or consistent sidewalks. There was also no clear way to get back onto the trail on the other side of the closed intersection. But hey, maybe I was just there are the wrong time. So I swung by a little bit later after the fences and everything were set up, but the problems were still there.

All trail users are routed down to the intersection of Stone and Northlake. Not only are the sidewalks very skinny, but the sidewalk on the east side of the intersection has no curb ramp, so there is no way to get a bike up or down to the road level without hopping the curb. There are also no markings at the intersection to designate a crosswalk of any kind, and there is no stop sign for people driving. Trail users are basically just told to disappear. Here’s a rough sketch I made from memory:

Confident bike riders can hop the curb and bike with traffic on Northlake, but what about everyone else? The Burke-Gilman Trail is an accessible route designed for people of all ages and abilities, and this detour is one of the worst I’ve seen in a while. Especially since the solutions seem fairly easy.

At a minimum, there needs to be a temporary ramp on the east corner, and a coned-off walking and biking area along the north side of the Stone/Northlake intersection so that people walking and biking can follow the shortest and simplest route around the closure. The hedges are also quite overgrown along the east sidewalk, constraining the already skinny sidewalk space and reducing visibility. Stop signs and perhaps coned lanes for westbound traffic on Northlake would also be wise since this is now a very confusing area, and the driving route no longer follows the lines painted on the road (see the top photo). It’s not immediately clear to anyone where they should be going, but I noticed that people driving westbound were not stopping. There is already a stop sign for eastbound traffic.

The thing is, Seattle Public Utilities already knows all this because they have been creating Burke-Gilman detours for this project for years at this point. I’m not sure how this one slipped through their process. Seattle Bike Blog also did not receive a construction detour notice, which has been common for this project in the past and makes me think this one didn’t go through all the usual steps.

Hopefully fixes can come quickly before anyone gets hurt, and changes can be put in place to catch these things in the future before they go into effect.

#SEAbikes #Seattle