15th Ave NW & NW 83rd St Pedestrian Safety Project: Construction to begin next week on new crosswalk

SDOT will begin construction on a new crosswalk that will span 15th Ave NW and NW 83rd St.

Crews plan to begin construction on the crosswalk project on July 17—SDOT expects the project to take four months to complete.

The pedestrian crossing was one of 15 projects selected by the Levy to Move Seattle Oversight Committee in 2019 and funded through the Seattle Department of Transportation’s Neighborhood Street Fund Program.

SDOT has delayed the project a few times; it was supposed to happen in 2020, but the pandemic meant a pause on several projects around the city. SDOT then planned to do it in 2021 and again in 2022 but pushed it back because they wanted to gather more community feedback.

Along with the crosswalk, SDOT plans to install a new pedestrian refuge island and new crossings for eastbound and westbound bikes.

Crews will start with the traffic signals. They’ll be trenching across the west side of NW 83rd St to complete electrical work, a process that will take about two months.

Next, a construction contractor will work for about a month on the concrete restoration work.

The diagram below shows the upcoming changes.

The construction will happen Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. with some detours and occasional lane shifts.

Photo: 15th Ave NW looking north at NW 83rd St