Construction road closures lead to big bucks for SDOT

SEATTLE -- Wherever you go, there they are -- the cones, the placards, and the warnings.

“There`s a lot of detour signs and don`t park here signs,” said Curt Archambault as he looked at construction at 9th Avenue and Thomas Street.

Sometimes it may seem the months-long building projects hog lanes, rip apart the roads and make clogged streets even worse, and Archambault admits it can be grating.

“It gets a little frustrating at times,” he said.

As a member of the South Lake Union Chamber of Commerce, Archambault knows the temporary pain of the seemingly random hodgepodge of closure times and destruction is by design.

“The longer people are in the right of way, the more expensive it is,” said Liz Sheldon, with the Seattle Department of Transportation.

Her department crunches the numbers on street use permits, the catch-all slice of bureaucracy that decides how lanes can be shut down and why.

Developers don't just "get" a chunk of 5th Avenue, for example, because they pay for the access, and the tab jumps every day.

“Basically, as an incentive to have contractors minimize what they`re using the right of way,” Sheldon said.

Even with that incentive, Seattle is making bank.

Q13 News found that street use permits have nearly doubled in the past five years and the money pouring into SDOT’s coffers has nearly tripled since 2013, going from $8.4 million to $19.7 million in 2016. It's extra money for city projects and street improvements.

Here's the kicker, though.

Since the companies break down bike lanes, parking, and some sidewalks during the build -- they are required to fully repair that section or even make it better.

The behind-the-scenes benefits of all this development that may likely be worth the wait.

“I think it`s one of those things -- out of sight, out of mind. People don`t notice it,” Archambault said.