Duvall Closure

Pristupnics and Chellovecks to Close Duvall:

Duvall is a nice little town east of Redmond where organic cows wander around in their salad mooing and munching like they had good sense. This isn’t about Duvall or cows or salad.

Duvall Avenue NE is the street that Renton uses to practice road construction techniques. They spent several years working on the intersection at NE Sunset Blvd and Duvall Ave NE. Just one intersection. Further south they’re in the midst of another random closure construction project. And that part was already done during another earlier multi year project.

Renton has this annoying propensity to snub its nose at the rest of the Newcastle suburbs in several ways. For example there’s a fairly reasonable system in King County for naming roads. The zero/zero point is in Seattle and the roads get a directional designation relative to that point. Thus we see things like NE, SE, EW, HUH?, and WHA? attached to road names around the region, as in Eastlake Ave N or NE 8th Street. Pierce and Snohomish Counties have similar systems. It makes finding how badly you’re lost a little easier. I bet a lot of other places have similar systems.

Well Renton renamed all their streets back in the late 60s to assert their global importance. They have their own zero/zero point in Downtown Renton. So, Coal Creek Parkway SE goes through Bellevue and Newcastle but in Renton it’s called Duvall Ave NE. And that part needs work. It looks like another multi year work session.

Now we hear rumors that Renton has decided that it would be much easier to close that section of the road for a year of intense construction rather than spend five years paying people to hold up STOP signs.

Good job. That’s a major overflow route for I-405. And we know the WSDOT will be working on I-405 because they’re already doing it. Now people who work in Bellevue will have to take a boat to work. Or take a year off. Either way would be fine.

This decision was the work of the Renton City Council. They approved Resolution 3922 which authorizes the closure for more or less 12 months. OK, now I’m wondering what the other 3921 resolutions do. Maybe I don’t want to know. Anyway, this seems to be yet another example of how Renton likes to take its own path and pretend it’s some kind of island.

I know a lot of people who work in Bellevue and Redmond will be using a long detour to avoid the whole scene. Or working from home on the new fiber optic cables. A great many of those people do not live in Renton but they have to get through there in order to get to their jobs. For example the people who hold up STOP signs on the Coal Creek Parkway project have to get to work. No way would a Newcastle person take a job holding up a sign.

Whatever the process it’ll be entertaining to watch.

Al