In order to make the bus routes through Ballard more reliable, the Seattle Department of Transportation is making changes along Market Street, including to the intersection of 24th Ave NW and NW Market.

Last year a pilot project was proposed to make major changes to the intersection, but after meeting with the community and doing analysis, that pilot project has been scrubbed. “The original plan for 24th and Market, to convert the right-hand lanes to transit and right turns only, would have worked as a pilot,” Bill Bryant with SDOT tells us. “However, the current plan – found to be superior to the original plan – does not include converting those lanes. Instead, the signal would be upgraded into a more modern operation and lanes would be re-striped on Market in the immediate vicinity of the intersection.”

Right now the signal is on a timer, but with the changes, Bryant says, vehicle detection equipment would be added to the intersection. The specific design of the project is expected to be completed in April and construction could start sometime between late this year and late 2012, Bryant says.