The closure of Spokane Street has been postponed one week.

The crew with the Seattle Department of Transportation needs a few extra days to finish repaving a nearby section of First Avenue South. Meanwhile, Spokane Street must stay open, part of the detour route around the repaving.

South Spokane Street, the lower roadway, will be closed on Tuesday, Sept. 16 (previously scheduled for Sept. 8th). It won't open again until mid-2010.

Eastbound lanes, between Second Avenue South and Fourth, will be closed to all traffic. The sections between First and Second, and Fourth and Fifth, will be open only for local access. Between Fourth and Fifth will be closed later in October when construction moves to that section.

The Spokane Street Viaduct, the upper deck, will remain open.

Crews will use the parking area under the viaduct between Second and Fourth for construction storage and staging. Cars parking there will be towed.

Seattle Public Utilities has hired Scarcella Brothers Construction to replace a 30-inch water main, which supplies West Seattle from the Beacon Hill reservoir.

Crews will install the new main, ten feet south, parallel to the old one. This must be done before the Seattle Department of Transportation begins construction of an off-ramp from the Spokane Street Viaduct, a new exit from the eastbound lanes looping down to Fourth Avenue South.

Westbound lanes will be closed later when the department of transportation builds a second viaduct parallel to the first, widening Spokane Street from four lanes to six, with new entrance and exit ramps to First Avenue.

Construction will be completed in 2011, in time to reroute traffic around construction on the replacement of the southern half of the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

In the meantime, traffic on the surface from Harbor Island must detour north on East Marginal Way, east on Hanford Street, to First Avenue.

Commuters driving east on the West Seattle Bridge may still exit at First Avenue, but both lanes must turn left at the bottom of the ramp. Shoppers heading to Costco must drive north to Lander Street and east to Fourth Avenue, before heading south.

Matthew G. Miller is a freelance writer living in the Admiral District. He may be contacted through wseditor@robinsonnews.com.