Road Construction Begins in Mercer Island Neighborhoods

2013 Chip Seal

Road crews will begin "chip-seal" work on Tuesday, July 30 on the following streets: Mercerwood Drive, from Gallagher Hill all the way down to East Mercer Way, SE 40th Street from 96th Ave to the 9700 block (this is the residential piece of 40th), and 81st, 82nd, and 83rd Avenues near Homestead Field.

Chip sealing is a cheaper method of road repair on Mercer Island, discontinued in the 1980s but revived last year by the city as a cost-saving measure. The method is used on roads that are still in good or fair condition, and can extend the life of a road for up to a dozen more years.

Construction work on this project actually began a couple of weeks ago with some storm drainage repairs and street patching, which were wrapped up this week. City road contractors Doolittle Construction completed "pre-seal" work on July 26 with new patch areas and other preparatory road work.

Most of these roads will receive a double chip seal, one each day. This work moves much faster than an asphalt overlay, and traffic can drive on chip seal much sooner than an asphalt overlay, but driving delays are to be expected in these areas.  

By Wednesday, July 31, all the chips should be down and the roads will look like they are gravel. The contractor will then return the week of August 5th to fog seal all of the chip areas. This fog sealing applies a top coating of asphalt to the chip seal to help with chip adhesion and also will give the road an even black color. This process will require closing one side of the roads to traffic to allow the fog seal to dry.  

Construction flaggers will manage traffic during the project, and local residents are advised to drive at reduced speeds for a few days due to the loose rock. Because chip seal road resurfacing leaves behind loose material, city crews will sweep all the roads each day — which may generate some noise and dust complaints. 

A couple of weeks after the fog sealing, city road crews will install the permanent striping.

2013 Overlays

This project involves hot mix overlays in the Town Center, East Seattle and Parkwood areas of Mercer Island on the following streets: West Mercer Way from SE 24th to SE 28th, 80th Ave from SE 27th to SE 28th Streets in the Town Center, the Parkwood neighborhood (east of Island Crest Way across from Island Park Elementary), and two other small residential streets. Work on this road contract is scheduled to begin with the Parkwood neighborhood on Aug. 5, and continue in other areas through Aug. 9.

City construction crews completed repairs on curb last week and are currently conducting repairs on some storm drain pipes in these construction areas.  

Road work will include mass removal of the existing pavement down to base rock, and repaving with hot mix asphalt (most areas will get two paving courses). The City's contractor, Lakeside Industries, hopes to get most if not all of the paving done the week of Aug. 5. Flaggers, equipment, and lots of dump trucks will be present in the construction areas, but minimal traffic disruption during construction is expected along Island Crest Way.

Lakeside has not yet scheduled their work on repaving SE 36th Street (between 80th & 81st Aves.) and 81st Ave. (between SE 36th & SE 37th Sts.) as well as a short section of 67th Avenue near the 3000 block of West Mercer Way.