After a $4.6 million repaving project is completed here, it will be several years before there are any more major road repairs in West Seattle.

Paving that started on Admiral Way earlier this month will be the last major road improvement until the Seattle Department of Transportation has repaired some failed downtown streets and on-off ramps to handle the thousands of extra cars diverted that way when the Alaskan Way Viaduct is finally replaced.

State government leaders and transportation officials are scheduled to make a decision about the earthquake damaged elevated highways' replacement by 2008, said Gregg Hirakawa, a spokesman for the city's transportation department.

That has become somewhat more urgent given the latest inspection of the highway that revealed it has sunk another quarter-of-an-inch to a total of 5 inches.

"It's getting to the point where something has to happen," said Hirakawa. "There's going to be 120,000 cars a day that will not get through the city on that corridor."

The city plans to repair parts of James and Mercer streets and the Lander Street overpass before construction begins on the viaduct so that traffic is not further disrupted downtown.

Meanwhile, base repairs and paving are underway on Southwest Admiral Way between 41st Avenue Southwest and Southwest Olga Street (by Admiral Viewpoint Park). Work started the last week of June, one week earlier than forecasted.

The paving project also included California Avenue from Edmunds Street to Admiral Way. The section of California Avenue between Edmunds Street and Genesee Street was completed before winter last year.

The project was supposed to get underway last August, but a countywide concrete strike held it up.

Contractors typically lease heavy equipment for large projects in advance. If it's not used during that time, the equipment goes to another job and "you move to the back of the line," said Hirakawa.

Even though Admiral is in better shape than other West Seattle arterials, it's being done first so it doesn't have to be rebuilt "from the dirt up," a more expensive endeavor for taxpayers, said Hirakawa.

"Yes, some roads are worse off than others and we aren't going to deny that," he said. "When you have to prioritize you have to look at it in a systematic way. We have an finite amount of resources and near infinite need..."

The transportation department's budget is about $196 million, while it "easily gets twice as many requests for work," Hirakawa said. It's also slowly chipping away at a $500 million backlog of deferred maintenance throughout the city.

The Bridging the Gap plan voters passed last fall is a good source of funding but will only cover about one-third of that work, said Dennis Ross, president of the Admiral Community Council.

And nothing comes with a small price tag.

For example, a portion of Seattle's busiest downtown surface road, West Mercer Street, has failed to the point that it must be rebuilt at an estimated cost of $100 million.

Pothole-filled and rutted roads like Sylvan Way Southwest are being partially repaved or left on the back burner in favor of repairing roads that have higher usage and require less money to fix. The goal, said Hirakawa, is to get to a road before it fails completely and before the cost is so high that it would further delay any repairs.

"It's a little bit of a triage we have to do," he said. "It can save taxpayers millions..."

Admiral sees about 26,000 cars a day east of California and roughly half that travel west of California.

Sylvan, which has about 7,000 vehicles per day, won't get fully repaved for at least five years, transportation officials have said.

"(Sylvan) is in bad condition and we understand that," Hirakawa said. "It just costs too much. We will get to it eventually."

Beach Drive Southwest is another street in bad shape. But it's not a priority for the city because it's not an arterial and doesn't get a lot of traffic.

Part of the reason for repaving Admiral is to remove old streetcar ties from the center of the roadway that have eroded and rotted, said Ross. Catch drains will also be replaced with high tech catch basins to improve drainage.

Admiral is reduced to one lane in each direction 24-hours-a-day until the end of the project, expected by mid-August. Additional closures could be required and drivers are encouraged to use alternate routes.

Sharrows, pavement arrows urging bikes and cars to share a road lane, will likely be added to the newly paved portion as part of the city's bike master plan. A pedestrian signal was installed late last year at Olga and Admiral.

Work on newly paved California Avenue Southwest is expected to complete during the next several weeks, including pavement striping, cleanup and restoration work.

Rebekah Schilperoort may be reached at 783.1244 or rebekahs@robinsonnews.com