information from King County

A ribbon cutting ceremony on Sept. 20 at 1:30 pm at the corner of 32nd Ave SW and SW Kenyon (near the former Westside School) will celebrate the completion of two years of construction for the Barton Street Combined Sewer Overflow project.

After the ribbon cutting tours of three locations in the Sunrise Heights and Westwood neighborhoods will be offered.

King County’s contractor, Goodfellow Brothers Inc., constructed 29 roadside rain gardens on five blocks in
the Sunrise Heights and Westwood neighborhoods this year (orange blocks on map). That brings the total over the past two construction seasons to 91 roadside rain gardens on 15 blocks.

King County installed these roadside rain gardens to divert stormwater runoff away from the combined sewer system. When it rains, stormwater will filter through bioretention soil to a drain pipe, which will take water to a deep well to get absorbed underground. Keeping stormwater out of the sewer system will reduce overflows of combined sewage and stormwater into Puget Sound near the Fauntleroy ferry dock during large storms.

King County will continue to monitor roadside rain gardens and overflows near the Fauntleroy ferry dock. The County must meet federal standards that allow no more than one overflow per year, on average. The four streets in green on the map are designed and ready to construct in the future, should they be needed.