New X, Inc., is planning to install benches in the next few weeks at the Lake Street and Kirkland Avenue intersection.
The contractor expects to complete the Lake Street Pedestrian Scramble in September.
New X says it will receive the traffic signal poles in late August and will devote the following weeks to their installation.
The signal poles are, of course, what makes the scramble’s all-stop, all-cross function possible.
Meanwhile, Puget Sound Energy is planning a second attempt at connecting the new transformer and electrical line to the existing electrical vault on the southeast corner of the intersection.
Puget Sound Energy's crews encountered a blockage during its initial July 6 attempt in the underground conduit, which prevented them from completing the connection.
The energy provider will notify all directly affected community members when it has established a date for the work.
The contractor is now planning to complete the Lake Street Pedestrian Scramble in September.
New X expects to receive the traffic signal poles in late August and to devote the following weeks to their installation.
The signal poles are, of course, what makes the scramble’s all-stop, all-cross function possible.
Update (Nov. 7, 2024) -- New X, Inc., is planning to continue paver installation this weekend on the northeast corner of Lake Street’s intersection with Kirkland Avenue.
The contractor’s crews plan to work from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and, if necessary, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.
The crews will maintain customers’ access to businesses.
Update (Nov. 1, 2024) -- New X, Inc., plans on Nov. 4 to pour the concrete base for the brick pavers its crews will install on the northeast corner of Lake Street’s intersection with Kirkland Avenue.
The contractor expects to complete the paver installation by Nov. 15.
This will, for the most part, complete the intersection’s walkable surface and prepare it for the new traffic signals that New X will install in the spring.
Update (Oct. 4, 2024) -- New X, Inc., is planning to complete paver installation by Wednesday on the southwest corner of Lake Street’s intersection with Kirkland Avenue.
The contractor plans to begin preparing the southeast corner—the Bank of America corner—for pavers the following day. Those pavers will rest on a concrete base, which crews will pour Oct. 10 and Oct. 11.
By Oct. 18, New X expects to have completed paver installation on the southeast corner.
Crews will pour the concrete base of the northeast corner—the Lake Street Diamond Company corner—on Oct. 19, 20, and 21 and, according to the contractor’s schedule, will lay the last paver on Oct. 25.
This will complete one of the project’s most transformative improvements and will help prepare the intersection for its new traffic signals.
Those signals will likely arrive in spring—several months later than originally planned. (Design discrepancies and longer-than-expected lead-times have delayed their anticipated arrival).
And City project engineers have considered them essential for the pedestrian scramble function—the signal-phasing that holds automobiles at all four corners and allows people who are walking to cross the intersection in any direction they choose.
However, the project engineers are now exploring the feasibility of activating the pedestrian scramble function with the existing and temporary traffic signals.
Update (Sept. 30) -- New X, Inc., is planning tomorrow to begin laying pavers on the southwest corner of Lake Street’s intersection with Kirkland Avenue.
It expects to complete paver installation on the southwest corner in a week or so.
New X is mostly completing the northwest corner today. Its workers, however, will leave a shallow gap near the curb ramp where they will relocate the old traffic signal pole.
New X expects to build the foundation in October and will install the new traffic signal pole on that foundation in spring.
Update (Sept. 20) -- New X, Inc., is planning to begin on Saturday the process of laying brick pavers in the graveled sidewalk areas of Lake Street’s intersection with Kirkland Avenue.
The Monroe-based contractor will start on the intersection’s southwest corner, occupied most prominently by the Hallmark Realty building, Herban Wellness, Bottle and Bull and Under the Needle.
Its crews will initiate the process by installing a geo-grid base for the pavers. The geo-grid compartmentalizes the pavers’ gravel base into a grid of individual cells. This promotes the gravel’s compaction, prevents its attrition, and allows tree roots to grow through it without buckling sidewalks.
New X expects to complete paver installation by the end of October.
Update (Sept. 10) -- New X, Inc., is planning on Sept. 16 to begin laying brick pavers in the gravel areas of Lake Street’s intersection with Kirkland Avenue.
The Lake Street pedestrian scramble contractor expects to receive the pavers at the end of this week.
New X now expects to complete this phase of the project by mid-October.
The contractor had originally planned to complete installation by the end of September.
Delays with the purchase and delivery of the brick pavers, however, have forced New X to extend its forecast.
Update (Sept. 6, 2024) -- New X, Inc., is planning next week to continue building the two landscaping areas on the northwest and southwest side of Kirkland Avenue’s intersection with Lake Street.
Those areas are near Alanya Doner and Hallmark Realty.
When complete, the landscaping areas will feature four trees—three Emerald Sunshine Elms and one Starlight Dogwood.
The Emerald Sunshine Elms, recent cultivars of the elm species, are an ideal tree for the urban environment to which they are destined, according to Jim Barborinas, Mount Vernon-based arborist and owner of the Urban Forest Nursery. It’s a well-behaved, small- to medium-sized tree that is disease- and drought-resistant and beautiful. In the fall, their leaves are bright yellow with purple tips. Their leaves drop and decompose quickly.
“What a gem,” he writes on his blog, www.urbanforestnursery.com.
The Starlight Dogwood are more established in streetscapes and landscapes. They grow to 30 feet in height and feature red fall colors. In the spring, they blossom with cream-colored bracts, commonly thought of as flowers. Like the Emerald Sunshine Elms, the Starlight Dogwood is also resistant to disease and drought.
New X will plant the trees during the final phases of construction.
Next week, New X is planning to begin preparing the intersection’s eastern legs for brick pavers. This means concrete crews will be forming, and eventually, pouring the pavers’ concrete base.
On the intersection’s west leg, the contractor will be installing a geo-grid structure that will allow tree roots to grow without breaking concrete and buckling sidewalk. New X will compact gravel into the grid, which will provide a structural base for the pavers.
New X expects to complete the paver installation by mid-October.
The contractor had expected to complete this phase of the Lake Street pedestrian scramble project by the end of this month.
However, delays with the purchase and delivery of the brick pavers have forced New X to extend its forecast.
Update (Aug. 21, 2024) -- New X, Inc., is now awaiting brick pavers to complete the sidewalks at all four corners of the Lake Street and Kirkland Avenue intersection.
The contractor expects to receive those pavers this month and to lay them in the areas now occupied by gravel by the end of September.
Before New X's crews can lay brick pavers on the east side of the intersection, they will have to build the concrete foundations for the traffic signal poles, as well as a concrete base for the pavers.
On the west side, New X will be laying the pavers on a subsurface that allows trees to grow. That surface is a combination of gravel, sand and a geo-grid that contains gravel and fosters greater compaction, while enabling tree roots to grow through it.
Update (Aug. 16, 2024) -- New X, Inc., poured sidewalk concrete today between the Alanya Doner and Salon 88.
The contractor plans to complete the concrete sidewalk on Monday. Specifically, New X will fill in the gaps that currently exist between the new sidewalk and buildings' frontages.
This is true for the northwest leg of Kirkland Avenue--for the sidewalk areas in front of The Shop, the Dr. Seuss art gallery and 88 Kirkland Salon. It is also true for the areas along the northwest leg of Lake Street, namely for the soon-to-open Italian restaurant, Xhale Vapor N Smoke, Lake Street Nail Bar and Seattle Thread Company.
However, gravel areas will remain. That is because those areas--specifically the plaza area in front of Alanya Doner and a parking median--will have a brick paver surface.
New X expects its subcontractor to lay those brick pavers in September.
Update (Aug. 8, 2024) -- New X, Inc., is now postponing until Monday the sidewalk concrete pour it had planned for today between the Alanya Doner and Salon 88.
The contractor now plans to begin the pouring process at 5:30 a.m., Aug. 12.
Crews are today repairing damaged utility conduit and connecting to the stormwater system a pair of roof drains that were hidden by the building facia.
The utility conduit was damaged today while crews were digging a shallow trench in the sidewalk area for stormwater drains. That task required the removal of a tree rootball. Unfortunately, that rootball had wrapped around utility conduit.
Update (Aug. 8, 2024) -- New X, Inc., is postponing until Friday the sidewalk concrete pour it had planned for today between the Alanya Doner and Salon 88.
The contractor now plans to begin the pouring process at 5:30 a.m., Aug. 9.
The delay derives from a pair of hidden roof drains, which crews discovered hidden behind building facia while preparing the sidewalk for new concrete.
To connect those roof drains to the underground stormwater system, crews must bury a pipe from Alanya Doner to Salon 88.
They are completing this work today.
Update (Aug. 2, 2024) -- New X, Inc., is planning on Thursday to pour the last remaining section of sidewalk concrete in the Lake Street and Kirkland Avenue intersection.
That section is on the intersection’s northwest corner, between the Alanya Doner and Salon 88.
The Kirkland contractor has previously completed sidewalk pours in all other corners of the intersection, as well as other sections of the northwest corner.
New X devote today, and will devote Tuesday and Wednesday, to prepare for the upcoming sidewalk pour.
The contractor is still planning to create concrete transitions between the sidewalk and adjacent buildings, where gaps currently exist.
Meanwhile, New X’s subcontractors are preparing to lay the brick pavers that will complete the intersection’s walking surfaces. To do that, a subcontractor will pour a base layer of concrete on which the brick pavers will rest.
Crews will pour that base during the day and will lay the brick pavers at night.
The brick pavers are currently on order. New X will provide a schedule when it receives the brick pavers.
Update (July 31, 2024) -- New X, Inc.’s sub-contractor is not currently planning this week to begin laying the intersection’s brick paver walking surfaces.
The delay this week derives from the discovery of a buried signal post foundation that New X's crews must remove before LRA Landscaping can begin laying the brick pavers.
LRA Landscaping will likely begin laying pavers next week, from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. The sub-contractor plans to complete laying the pavers in September.
Project managers expect the night work to generate sporadic periods of noise, mostly when crews need to saw-cut the brick pavers.
New X, Inc.’s day-time crews meanwhile are pouring concrete for the intersection’s sidewalk areas.
Update (July 23, 2024) -- New X, Inc.’s sub-contractor is planning on Monday to begin laying the intersection’s brick paver walking surfaces at night.
LRA Landscaping will lay pavers from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. until September.
Project managers expect the night work to generate brief, sporadic periods of noise, mostly when crews need to saw-cut the brick pavers.
New X, Inc.’s day-time crews meanwhile are pouring concrete for the intersection’s sidewalk areas. Currently, they are working in the northwest corner.
The section they recently poured on the southwest corner of the intersection—in front of Under the Needle and Bottle and Bull—is not yet complete. Crews will be forming a concrete cap that will cover a gap between the building and the sidewalk.
Update (July 12, 2024) -- New X, Inc., is planning to resume sidewalk construction Monday, starting with the southwest corner of Lake Street and Kirkland Avenue.
The contractor will be rebuilding sidewalk in front of Under the Needle, Bottle and Bull and Herban Wellness.
To minimize disruptions to local businesses, the New X is aiming to start working at 5 a.m. and be done by 3 p.m.
New X focused this week on responding to some urgent management challenges and optimizing its work schedule moving forward to improve efficiency and minimize disruptions.
Update (July 1, 2024) -- Last week work progressed on the northeast corner of the Lake/Kirkland intersection, as concrete sidewalk was installed next to the coffee shop and tailor on Lake Street and the sushi businesses on Kirkland Avenue. The contractor then began preparing for the 4th of July holiday and parade by securing the site in preparation for the parade and the influx of people it brings.
This week, New X, Inc. will continue to prepare for the holiday break by removing equipment and ensuring the site is safe for pedestrians. However, we do have a change in schedule to notify you about. The order of operations for the sidewalks has shifted from completing a single corner before moving to the next to now pouring the areas on each corner that is receiving full concrete sidewalk panels. They will then return to the corners for areas receiving pavers with a concrete base.
So, that means that beginning the week of July 8, New X, Inc. will begin on the southwest corner, to prepare the sidewalk to pour concrete early next week on the southwest corner of the intersection. Those businesses with direct impacts will be contacted this week, directly. Pedestrians will be detoured around this area as a construction zone, but will have access to all businesses.
Update (June 25, 2024) -- Next week's planned work on the southwest corner will not be occurring as outlined in my email 30 minutes ago. They are not planning demolition or concrete work next week due to the holiday.
(June 25, 2024) -- Last week work progressed on the northeast corner of the Lake/Kirkland intersection, to prepare for a concrete pour at the locations that are not receiving the corner pavers. This morning, the first sidewalk concrete pour occurred. Access is available to the businesses based on their needs, and the concrete is expected to be cured enough for foot traffic by the end of the construction day.
Beginning Wednesday, New X, Inc. will be moving to the southwest corner, to prepare the sidewalk to pour concrete early next week on more area’s that do not get the pavers. New X will remove the existing sidewalk panels and prepare the subbase with gravel.
(June 17, 2024) -- Last Wednesday, after more than two months of closure, the City of Kirkland re-opened a transformed Lake Street and Kirkland Avenue intersection.
New X, Inc., has replaced the intersection’s failed stormwater system and deteriorated asphalt surface with a new stormwater system and a concrete surface that already feels like a plaza. For now, Lake Street and Kirkland Avenue will operate as a standard intersection with pedestrian crossings restricted to north-to-south and east-to-west movements.
New X, Inc. begins work this week on the sidewalk at the northeast corner of the intersection. Work at each corner is expected to last at least three weeks. Pedestrians will be detoured around the corner under construction except those accessing businesses abutting the sidewalk construction.
(June 12, 2024) -- After more than two months of closure, the City of Kirkland re-opened to automotive traffic today a transformed Lake Street and Kirkland Avenue intersection.
Ten minutes before 4 p.m., New X, Inc., Kirkland’s contractor, removed the barricades on all four legs that blocked traffic from traversing the intersection and, almost simultaneously, the first vehicle, a white sedan drove south across the new surface.
Within seconds, the temporary traffic signals were ushering dozens of vehicles throughout the intersection.
For now, the Lake Street and Kirkland Avenue will operate as a standard intersection with pedestrian crossings restricted to north-to-south and east-to-west movements.
When complete in the fall, however, the intersection will be the site of Kirkland’s first pedestrian scramble, which people will be able to cross in any direction they choose—while the pedestrian phase is active[TD2] .
Over the next five months, New X, Inc. will work toward that vision, rebuilding the sidewalk areas with brick pavers on all four legs of the intersection. The sidewalk areas will be level with the street surface, creating a plaza-like feel. The contractor will replace the traffic signals, add pedestrian lighting and landscaping.
Already, New X, Inc., has replaced the intersection’s failed stormwater system, its deteriorated asphalt surface and the concrete base beneath it with a new stormwater system and a concrete surface that already feels like a plaza.
Update (June 10, 2024) -- New X, Inc. is on track June 12 to re-open Lake Street’s intersection with Kirkland Avenue—most likely in the evening.
The contractor will be paving all four legs of the intersection Tuesday and Wednesday and striping in its permanent driving and bicycling lanes.
Paving begins at 7 a.m. tomorrow.
New X will remove the construction fencing before re-opening the intersection.
Later this week, the contractor will begin removing the sidewalk from the northeast leg of the intersection. Once removed, work crews will form the sidewalk area, pour its concrete base and then install its brick paver surface. This process will last approximately three weeks, according to New X’s schedule.
The contractor will repeat this process for approximately three weeks at each of the intersection’s remaining three legs.
The project contract requires New X to provide access to all shops.
To ensure that the intersection re-opening is efficient and reliable, City staff removed the nine temporary Lake Street parking stalls it created in April near Central Way.
Update (June 4, 2024) -- New X, Inc., is planning this week to continue pouring concrete for the north and south sides of the intersection. The contractor is also preparing the roadway this week to pave it next week.
It is also completing installation of the stormwater system and the temporary traffic signal system.
Last week, New X installed the stormwater system’s biggest feature and made significant progress on building the curb and gutter. And on Saturday, its crews applied the decorative features in the sidewalk areas.
Update (May 31, 2024) -- The City is now expecting its contractor to re-open Lake Street’s intersection with Kirkland Avenue on June 12.
Throughout the last two weeks, New X, Inc., encountered several days of rain, unexpected soil conditions and underground infrastructure that did not conform to the standard design.
Combined, these factors delayed progress on several tasks and halted progress on others.
New X, Inc., plans to work Saturday, June 1, starting at 7 a.m.
Update (May 29, 2024) -- New X, Inc., is aiming this week to set concrete forms for the intersection’s corners, sidewalks and bulbouts. The contractor will also be placing concrete for some parts of the intersection’s curbs and gutters.
One of the contractor’s biggest tasks this week is to install the last two components of the intersection’s underground stormwater system.
Last week, New X placed concrete throughout the intersection, its crosswalk areas and some of its sidewalk access ramps.
Crews worked at night, from 8 p.m. to 2:30 a.m. cutting contraction joints in the concrete. They also removed a few Sweetgum trees and installed irrigation lines for the intersection’s future landscaping.
Update (May 22, 2024) -- Rain has delayed New X’s schedule for pouring concrete at Lake Street and Kirkland Avenue, which has, in turn, delayed the intersection’s opening.
Kirkland’s contractor is now planning on June 5 to re-open the intersection to automotive traffic.
The sidewalk areas surrounding Lake Street’s intersection with Kirkland Avenue remain open for walking.
Weather is, at this point, the factor that dictates when the intersection will re-open since the concrete’s structural integrity and appearance depends on pouring it in dry weather and onto dry surfaces.
Assuming the forecast for dry weather continues to hold, New X is planning this afternoon to resume concrete pouring.
To ensure the concrete trucks can deliver concrete to the construction zone as safely and efficiently as possible, New X will again close Kirkland Avenue, between Main Street and the construction zone on Lake Street.
Sidewalks along this stretch will be available for walking. However, the street, itself, will be off-limits for parking and driving.
Trees
A consulting arborist on Monday evaluated the health and survivability of two more Sweetgum trees on the west leg of the intersection, near The Shop and the Dr. Seuss art studio. The arborist determined that, due to the impacts of construction, these two trees are unlikely to survive and likely to pose a hazard to the public.
As such, New X’s crews will remove those trees on Friday, per the City of Kirkland’s tree removal guidelines. Removing the trees on Friday helps the contractor meet the project’s timeline.
The City will replace the Sweetgum directly in front of the Dr. Seuss art studio with a 12- to 14-foot tree. To protect the health of the remaining trees and to allow more space for a sidewalk area, the City will not replace the tree in front of The Shop, which is consistent with the approved landscaping plan.
Update (May 17) -- New X, Inc., is planning on Monday and Tuesday to close Kirkland Avenue, between Main Street and the construction zone, so concrete trucks can more efficiently and safely access the intersection.
The closure will begin at 7 a.m. on both days and will continue until 8 p.m.
The sidewalks will remain open for walking.
The City of Kirkland’s water division is planning at midnight on May 15 to shut off water to homes and businesses on both sides of Lake Street, south of Kirkland Avenue.
The shutdown will affect Lake Street homes and businesses between Kirkland Avenue and Second Avenue South.
Water service will return by 5:30 a.m., May 15.
Kirkland’s water division staff will directly notify affected businesses and residents. Each affected business and residential building will receive one notification.
The purpose of the shutdown is to remove and replace a fire hydrant on the southeast corner of the intersection.
Update (May 15) -- New X, Inc., is planning on June 3 to re-open the Lake Street and Kirkland Avenue intersection to traffic.
This is two days later than the City had expected.
Kirkland’s staff and leaders are aware of the inconvenience the delay can cause and are actively working with the contractor to ensure its crews can complete the required work quickly and return the intersection to traffic.
These efforts include allowing the contractor to work seven days a week and using a type of concrete that cures more quickly.
New X requested permission to keep the intersection closed through Sunday, June 2, after a materials delay postponed the scheduled water shutdown by four days—from May 10 to May 15.
New X could not proceed with pouring the concrete until the water shutdown had occurred, which allowed its crews to relocate a fire hydrant.
The decorative concrete work is the project’s most visible, and, perhaps most vulnerable task. To ensure the concrete surface is attractive and durable, the contractor is relying on predictably dry weather to pour it. As such, any forecasted rain may further delay the concrete work and, as a result, the reopening of the intersection.
Update (May 13) -- Along with May 15’s midnight to 5:30 a.m. water shutdown, New X, Inc., is planning this week to prepare the intersection for its concrete surface. This means its crews will be fine-grading the intersection, setting concrete forms with rebar and, in some areas, pouring concrete.
New X will continue preparing the intersection for the installation of the traffic signals and will remove the fire hydrant from the southeast corner of the intersection, near Bank of America.
To prepare for the water shutdown, New X established a new air vacuum system last week and installed a new fire hydrant on the northeast corner of the intersection. Its crews also installed conduit for traffic signals and pedestrian lighting and made significant progress grading the intersection.
Update (May 8, 2024) — The City of Kirkland’s water division is planning at midnight on May 15 to shut off water to homes and businesses on both sides of Lake Street, south of Kirkland Avenue.
The shutdown will affect Lake Street homes and businesses between Kirkland Avenue and Second Avenue South.
Water service will return by 5:30 a.m., May 15.
Kirkland’s water division staff will directly notify affected businesses and residents. Each affected business and residential building will receive one notification.
The purpose of the shutdown is to remove and replace a fire hydrant on the southeast corner of the intersection.
Update (May 7, 2024) — Kirkland’s Lake Street pedestrian scramble contractor is preparing the site this week for a water shutdown it is tentatively planning to conduct later this week or late next week.
New X, Inc., will confirm the date of the water shutdown on May 7. To minimize disruptions to local businesses, the shutdown will occur between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.
Affected community members will receive notice two days before the shutdown begins.
The shutdown is necessary to remove the fire hydrant that is currently located on the southeast corner of the intersection, near the Bank of American building and Homegrown.
The contractor is installing a new fire hydrant this week on the northeast corner of the intersection, near the Lake Street Diamond Company.
Also this week, New X, Inc., is continuing to prepare the intersection’s subgrade for its concrete surface and planning to install underground conduit through which it will later feed the electrical wires that will power the intersection’s new traffic signals.
Last week, New X reduced the intersection’s flood risk by completing the underground stormwater system. It also made significant progress with excavation.
Update (April 30, 2024) — The City of Kirkland restored water service just after 9 a.m. today to the southeast leg of Lake Street’s intersection with Kirkland Avenue, after a New X., Inc., worker accidentally hit a connection point that resulted in a 75-minute water shut-off.
Community members will receive prior notice for any planned water outages.
Update (April 29, 2024) — The goal of New X, Inc., this week is to continue making progress on the installation of the stormwater system. That goal, however, will likely be stymied during some periods by a network of other underground utilities—water, power and communication lines—around which Kirkland’s contractor will have to work.
New X, Inc., is also planning to begin its installation of the electrical conduit for the intersection’s new traffic signals.
Last week, the contractor began trenching for the intersection’s new stormwater system; removed pavement and three Sweetgum trees on the west leg of Kirkland Avenue.
Update (April 25, 2024) — New X, Inc., is planning to remove three Sweetgum trees tomorrow from the west leg of Kirkland Avenue.
One of the trees is on the north side of the Hallmark Realty building. The second and third trees are on the south side of the building that houses Alanya Café.
An image below identifies the three trees.
A consulting arborist assessed tree-health on Monday around the intersection and discovered the three trees that, for safety reasons, needed to be removed.
In short, various maintenance and utility projects over the years have likely injured the trees’ roots and, as such, reduced the trees’ stability.
The arborist is not confident that the doomed trees could withstand windstorms without falling over.
The project team is working with the planning department and Streets and Grounds to ensure they are removed according to the Kirkland Municipal Code. The team is also working with the landscape architect to plan possible replacement trees.
Update (April 18, 2024) — The City of Kirkland striped nine temporary parking stalls today on Lake Street, near its intersection with Central Way.
The parking spots will be available during New X, Inc.'s eight-week closure of the Lake Street and Kirkland Avenue intersection.
June 1 is still the date Kirkland's contractor is planning to re-open the intersection to automotive traffic.
People can access each business by walking along the sidewalks that surround the construction zone. Bicycling on the sidewalks is prohibited.
Update (April 5, 2024) — After the first week of a full closure, Kirkland’s Lake Street pedestrian scramble contractor is on schedule to re-open Lake Street’s intersection with Kirkland Avenue on June 1.
New X, Inc., completed the slew of essential tasks it planned to complete this week and began the demolition process.
J.R. Chapman, New X’s project manager, said demolition will continue next week.
“Demo will be done by the end of next week,” Chapman said.
Update (March 28, 2024) — Kirkland's Lake Street pedestrian scramble contractor is planning to close on April 1 Lake Street's intersection with Kirkland Avenue.
New X, Inc. will establish the chain-linked fence around the construction zone on April 2.
Pedestrians will have access throughout the intersection via sidewalks. Vehicle, however, will be prohibited.
Update (March 26, 2024) -- Kirkland’s Lake Street Pedestrian Scramble contractor led a construction-area walk-through March 26 during which merchants viewed the areas of closure and access for pedestrians and vendors.
New X, Inc., plans to begin construction March 25 and to begin the eight-week closure April 1. Construction will continue through December.
Update (March 22, 2024) — Puget Sound Energy is planning an additional power outage the night of March 27.
The utility provider expects to turn off power at 10 p.m., March 27 and to restore power by 5 a.m., March 28.
This outage will affect much fewer customers than the first two did. Puget Sound Energy will notify its affected customers directly.
Customers who do not receive notification will not lose power March 27.
Puget Sound Energy had planned for the March 20 – 21 outage to be its final outage.
During that outage, however, its crews encountered an unmapped line in one of its vaults that provided power to the Mariner apartment building.
Since Puget Sound Energy had not directly notified those residents of an outage, the utility provider chose to reschedule the outage to ensure it could notify all of its affected customers.
Update (March 14, 2024) — Puget Sound Energy says 115 of its customers will lose power during those hours. Seventy-two will lose power on the first night of the outages. And 51 will lose power on the second night. Eight customers will lose power on both nights.
Puget Sound Energy will notify all of its affected customers with a postcard it is sending out today. It will follow up the postcards with a series of automated phone calls tomorrow. The customers who will lose power on both nights will receive notice for each power outage.
Puget Sound Energy notifies only the customers, who will be losing power. If Puget Sound Energy does not notify a customer, that customer will not lose power.
A week after Puget Sound Energy completes its utility relocation, Kirkland’s contractor will begin the process of transforming the Lake Street and Kirkland Avenue intersection. New X, Inc, will devote much of its first days on the job to mobilizing and preparing the intersection for construction.
It plans to close down the intersection on April 1, or very soon, thereafter.
Kirkland staff, meanwhile, continues to identify micro-solutions that will ease the burden of construction on the downtown merchants. Along with converting into nine parking spots Lake Street’s right-turn lane onto eastbound Central Way, City staff is also trying to provide access to Lake Street’s entrance to the alleyway that is south of the Bank of America building.
Even if successful, this access would be intermittent; available only when the contractor isn’t actively using—or rebuilding—that area.
Update (March 12, 2024) -- Puget Sound Energy’s crews are continuing to work in various locations of the Lake Street and Kirkland Avenue intersection.
City of Kirkland staff members are expressing gratitude today for the patience and understanding exhibited by Kirkland's downtown merchants while Puget Sound Energy worked extended hours to restore power to its 182 customers.
Puget Sound Energy had prepared those customers to be without power from 10 p.m., March 1 to 5 a.m., March 2.
Unfortunately, Puget Sound Energy’s crews ran into a utility relocation that was more complicated than they had originally anticipated.
This extended the outage from 5 a.m. to noon--or later for some merchants.
Puget Sound Energy is planning at least one more outage near the end of its relocation project.
The relocation project’s last day is currently planned for March 19.
Update (Feb. 23, 2024) -- Puget Sound Energy will be conducting a planned power outage on March 1 that will affect 182 of its customers.
The outage will occur between 10 p.m. March 1 and 5 a.m. March 2.
Puget Sound Energy notified all of its affected customers with a postcard on Feb. 22 and will remind those customers with an automated phone call on Feb. 26.
Customers who did not receive direct notification will not lose power.
The March 1 outage will be the first of two power outages Puget Sound Energy has planned for its vault relocations. The second will occur near or at the end of the utility relocation project. Puget Sound Energy plans to complete the project March 19.
Puget Sound Energy is relocating the vault to make room for the Lake Street Pedestrian Scramble project.
Update (Feb. 12, 2024) — Puget Sound Energy begins five weeks of utility relocations tonight in the Kirkland Avenue and Lake Street intersection.
Crews will be working from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. to relocate Puget Sound Energy’s existing electrical vault on the southwest corner of the intersection.
Most of the work will take place on the southwest corner of the intersection. However, the relocation could require some work on the southeast corner, as well as one night of work in Kirkland Avenue’s intersection with Main Street. That night is March 19 to March 20.
With the exception of Feb. 12, crews will be working nights to mitigate the effects of construction on traffic and commerce.
The work will generate construction noise.
To complete the utility relocation project, Puget Sound Energy is planning two power outages, which will occur at night and no earlier than March 1. Its communication staff is aiming to give their customers four to five days of notice prior each outage.
Puget Sound Energy is determining what areas of downtown the power outages will affect.
Though unlikely, Puget Sound Energy could identify a need for other unplanned power outages. In those cases, it will provide as much notice as is feasible.
Puget Sound Energy's current schedule is below:
Feb. 12: Remove wire. (Day work)
Feb. 13 – Feb. 28: Install electrical vault and conduit (Night work)
March 1: Re-install wire (Night work)
March 3 – March 19: Install electrical vault (Night work)
March 19 – March 20: Install wire (Night work)