MONDAY MORNING UPDATE: SDOT reports that the I-5 ramps at Mercer reopened at 5 a.m. Monday morning. The next scheduled closure of the ramps is June 17-20.

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UPDATE: This post has been changed since it was first edited. Details of Metro bus rerouting have been confirmed.

Here comes the weekend and with it two street closures that will impact travel from Eastlake to other parts of town:

I-5 ramps at Mercer: The ramps will be closed from 11 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. on Monday as work continues on the Mercer Corridor Project. Mercer will be closed from Westlake to Fairview, including access from Mercer to southbound Fairview that had been kept open during previous closures. Fairview will be closed for several blocks in the vicinity of Mercer.

Metro will be rerouting buses off Fairview and onto Eastlake for the duration of the closure. During the closure, Linda Thielke at Metro says that the reroutes would go until 5 a.m. Monday morning even if the ramps reopen early.

You can find out more about the project, including maps on alternate routes for this weekend, at the Mercer Corridor Project's website. The next closure is June 17-20.

University District Street Fair: The annual street fair is on in the University District this weekend. University Way will be closed between N.E. 50th and N.E. Campus Parkway on both Saturday and Sunday. Side streets on that route will also be closed. Saturday hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday is 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

As reported last week, this Thursday afternoon will be the last opportunity for shoppers to browse through the many local vendors at the FarmBoat in 2010. After today, it will be closed until its spring market, which is projected to start in late March, depending on the growing season. At today’s final 2010 winter market, the Farmboat’s usual vendors will be accompanied by music from the Seattle Waldorf School and food provided by Nollies.

With 2011 rapidly approaching, FarmBoat’s organizer, Captain David Petrich is already preparing for the spring season. Plans are currently in the works to obtain more vendors and to start a smaller market boat that will service communities along Lake Union and other local waterways. A few proposed stops include Eastlake’s own Terry Pettus Park and the Lynn Street Park near Pete's Wine Shop. Other spots currently being discussed include locations near the Center for Wooden Boats, Gas Works Park and Auga Verde. Deliveries to these places will... (more)

The Seattle Marathon will take over parts of two Eastlake streets on Sunday morning (Nov. 28) and into early afternoon.

The race begins and ends at Seattle Center. A total of 14,000 particpants are expected.

The full marathon begins at 7:15 a.m. and the half-marathon at 7:30 a.m. The course is open until 2:15 p.m. I'm guessing the first runners (the half-marathoners) might arrive in Eastlake around 8 a.m., but that's just a guess.

Streets that will be affected are Delmar Drive, Roanoke E. to the corner of Boylston, and then Boylston south onto Lakeview. The sourthern end of Eastlake in the Cascade neighborhood will also be affected. A PDF of affected streets is attached to this post.

Delmar Drive will be closed from 8:15 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. One side of Boylston and Lakeview will be closed from 8:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Lakeview exit from northbound I-5 will also be closed.

The best advice is to not try to drive on these streets. Head down to Eastlake Ave. or go around to Fuhrman if you need to get to Portage Bay. Need to get to Capitol Hill? You should be able to go around the south end of Lake Union and then, maybe, find a way to cross the course in South Lake Union and head up Denny. Maybe.

It's fun to go out along Boylston and cheer the runners as they go by.

For more info on the race, go to the official Seattle Marathon website.

Here are three traffic-related items that will affect Eastlake on Friday and Saturday:

• SDOT reports that the southbound, curb lane of the University Bridge will be closed on Friday (Sept. 10) from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Repair crews will be fixing an expansion joint. The sidewalk and bike lane will remain open.
• Also on Friday, the NE 45th Street viaduct will reopen. The new west approach will open at 8:45 a.m. The new approach replaced a timber structure built in 1939. Having the viaduct open again should help relieve traffic congestion in Montlake.
• The UW Huskies football team will be town this Saturday, so be ready for traffic snarls in Montlake and other areas around the stadium and the University District. Game time is 4 p.m. For the rest of the season's football schedule, check the Huskie's website.

Work continues on 10th Avenue E. on Capitol Hill this weekend which will result in some traffic detouring on Boylston in the Eastlake neighborhood.

Work begins Saturday at 10 a.m. and should be done by 10 p.m. on Sunday.

The northbound lane of 10th E. will be closed to all traffic but transit. Northbound traffic will again be detoured at Broadway to Roy, then Belmont, then Lakeview and onto Boylston E. in the Eastlake neighborhood before heading to Roanoke and 10th Avenue E.

The detour route should be clearly posted.

The Seattle Department of Transportation continues its work on 10th Avenue E. on Capitol Hill this weekend. The detour will send some traffic from Broadway down to our neighborhood.

Starting at 7 a.m. on Saturday, the contractor will be building a concrete lane between the 520 overpass and E. Lynn. Northbound traffic will again be detoured at Broadway to Roy, then Belmont, then Lakeview and onto Boylston E. in the Eastlake neighborhood before heading to Roanoke and 10th Avenue E.

The work is expected to be finished by Sunday evening.

If it's a summer weekend, it must be time for road repairs. This weekend's roadwork isn't exactly in Eastlake but its impacts may be felt here:

• 10th Avenue E. partial closure: The delayed paving on 10th Avenue E. is now scheduled for this weekend. 10th E. will be closed to northbound traffic between E. Boston Street and E. Roanoke from 7 a.m. on Saturday until about noon on Sunday. Northbound traffic will head to the eastern fringe of Eastlake. It will be detoured to E. Roy, then Belmont E., Lakeview E. to Boylston E. and then onto E. Roanoke.
• I-5 paving: State paving crews will be working on I-5 again this weekend, from 4 to 9 a.m. Saturday and Sunday mornings. They'll be patching the northbound lanes just north of the 520 exits. Lanes will be closed and they'll be using concrete saws, jackhammers, air compressors and "other noisy equipment," WSDOT says in an e-mail. The good news is that they say drivers will notice a smoother ride once the work is done. If you live close to the freeway, wear your earplugs...

UPDATE: This post has been changed since it was first published. No lanes will be paved or closed this weekend.

This just in from SDOT: The contractor's plans on this have changed. They won't be paving this weekend but will be doing work on underground utlities on 10th between Roanoke and Miller. Two lanes will be open. No traffic will be detoured.

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ORIGINAL POST:

Weekend paving on a portion of 10th Avenue E. will bring some detour traffic from Capitol Hill down onto Boylston Avenue E. and make travel from Capitol Hill to Eastlake more complicated.

During the work, 10th Avenue E. will be closed northbound between a location just south of E. Miller to E. Roanoke.

Crews from the Seattle Department of Transportation will close a lane on the west side of 10th Avenue E. at 7 a.m. Saturday and begin digging up pavement about 8 a.m. They hope to reopen the lanes by noon on Sunday, if not sooner.

During the closure, northbound traffic will detour from Broadway to E. Roy, then to Belmont... (more)

GreenAve.com? That might have been the name of this blog if Eastlake's original street names had been left intact.

Check the attached map to see what I mean. It's a detail section of an 1893 city ward and precinct map posted recently on Flickr by the Seattle Municipal Archives. 

You can view the whole map here on Flickr. Be sure to check out the larger size because the interesting stuff is in the details.

You'll see that most of the street names in Eastlake in 1893 bear no resemblance to the names we know now.

Eastlake Avenue? The street is there but not the name. It's labeled as Green Street. In fact several familiar streets have unfamiliar names, many of them colors. Franklin is Indigo. Yale is Yellow Street. Minor is Orange. And a little piece of what would be Fairview is labeled Red.

A few contemprary names are on the 1893 map: Allison, Shelby, Hamlin, Roanoke, Louisa. Lynn is known as Angie. Boston is called Grace. Edgar shows up but it's a little longer: Edgard. Over the hill, Fuhrman is called Randall.

I'm intrigued by the cluster of small streets west of Louisa. Several of the names aren't legible in this photo, but the east/west street between Roanoke and Louisa is: Clatsop Avenue.

And speaking of small streets, check out Short Street on the point where Gas Works Park now stands.

If you look at the southern end of this enlargement, you'll see that Franklin makes an appearance, but it doesn't apparently connect with the northern part of the street.

Local writer Benjamin Lukoff notes in a comment on the Municipal Archives Flickr page that there was a great renaming of streets in 1895. It would be interesting to know how our current names came about. 

More photos from the Seattle Municipal Archives can be found here on Flickr. They have a Flickr set of just historic city maps.

LED streetlights at E. Aloha and 10th Ave. E. (CapitolHillSeattle.com photo)

Seattle City Councilman Bruce Harrell lead a media tour Tuesday evening to City Light's Lighting Design Lab in SoDo to show off the new LED streetlights that are being installed around town.

This was followed by a visit to West Seattle to see the new lights in action.

Eastlake Avenue E. is probably going to get some of these lights during a relamping (see our previous post), which use new LED bulbs that last longer and costs less to operate. They also have a whiter color than the orangish sodium vapor lights we've all gotten used to in the last several decades.

The current phase of the relamping project was supposed to start at Denny Way at the end of March and work north, so our turn is coming.

I wasn't able to attend Tuesday's demonstration and tour to West Seattle to see the lights in action (although I've seen them on Capitol Hill), but fortunately the West Seattle Blog was able to go. They have an excellent post up with photos and video showing the difference in the lights.

In an article written in February, Harrell and City Light Superintendent Jorge Carrasco said approximately 5,000 LED lights will be installed in this first round. Eventually, all 84,000 city streetlights will be replaced with the new technology.

Thanks to the West Seattle Blog for the great post.

The Seattle Department of Transportation  will be doing road repairs on Eastlake Ave. between E. Galer and E. Garfield streets on Saturday. One lane will be closed in each direction.

Crews are planning to work between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.

Seattle has a good program for funding public art. The 1% for Art ordinance was enacted in 1973 and has helped the city pay for a large collection of art in public spaces.

Several pieces of that city-funded art are on Eastlake, as well as lots of art that has been created and contributed for the love of the neighborhood. Where is all of it located?

We all walk by (or, in the case of the "Cornerstones" pieces, walk over) our public art every day. Sometimes, familiarity leads us to stop actually seeing the art that is all around us. Sometimes, you just need to slow down and take a look at what's right in front of you.

In that spirit, I'm going to put up some posts about Eastlake's public art. First up, the three "Dreamboats" shelters located on Eastlake Avenue E. at E. Roanoke, E. Lynn and E. Boston (see the map in the photos with this post).

The three fiberglass kayak shelters were created in 1997 by artists Linda Beaumont, Stuart Keeler and Michael Machnic. Beaumont's web site explains the thoughts behind the pieces:

The three golden kayaks link the busy street with the lake shore, to Eastlake's history as a Native American site, and to Lake Union, the body of water, center of the city, and passageway to Puget Sound and Pacific.

The three are titled "Rest" (at E. Roanoke), "Read" (at E. Lynn) and "Respect" at E. Boston. The titles, Beaumont's site says, "imply choices for the passing public."

• "Rest" has a mosaic bench where you can rest and look up at the images on the kayak and read the words on the bench. Look close at the coins embedded in the cement at the base (there's a photo of one with this post).
• "Read" has selections from a Native American story about the invention of the paddle and also includes a place to hang posters and fliers (although it isn't being used much for that).
• "Respect" acts as a trellis for native plants.

At night, all three structures are illuminated, which can be a helpful guide in steering your way home.

The Seattle Times' Robin Updike wrote about "Dreamboats" and several other Eastlake art pieces in 1997:

Public art works best when it is located in a place where lots of people can enjoy it, when it makes you pause a little and reflect, or when it's a charming, unexpected surprise, like a bouquet of flowers arriving on your desk for no particular reason at all. These new Eastlake projects are all of those things.

And on this bustling city thoroughfare, a neighborhood road that was never meant to be as full of traffic as it is, the projects are also gifts to pedestrians, those stalwarts who walk to work, or to the bus stop or to the University District, rather than add another vehicle to the road.

What's your favorite piece of Eastlake public art? Do you know of anything special or hard to find? Put it in the comments and I'll include it in a future post.

Next up: The "Cornerstones" artwork, with a map showing where all the stones are and what's on each one.

You can get old Eastlake street signs from the city.

You may have noticed that Seattle's street signs are being replaced. The old aluminum signs are being phased out in favor of new fiberglass models.

Where do the old signs go?

Thank's to the sleuthing of the Central District News, we now know that they go to the City of Seattle's surplus warehouse at 3807 Second Ave. S. (behind the City Light warehouse just south of the Spokane Street viaduct). The old signs are cheap: $5 to $10 each.

There's a list showing what signs are in stock. Eastlake Avenue E. is there, as are E. Blaine, E. Boston, Boylston, E. Edgar, Fairview Avenue E., E. Galer, E. Garfield, E. Hamlin, Harvard Avenue E., E. Louisa, Minor Ave., E. Newton, E. Roanoke, Yale Pl. E. and probably a bunch of others I've missed.

The warehouse is open Monday-Friday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Questions? Call them at (206) 684-0827 or e-mail at ffd.warehouse@seattle.gov.

I hoping to get down there Friday and pick up a certain street sign I have in mind!

Thanks, Scott, for finding out about this (and MyBallard.com for posting it also).