Repaving 1.5 miles of California Avenue and a few blocks of Admiral Way is scheduled to begin in mid-August and will bring changes to crosswalks and intersections from Admiral Way to Edmunds Street in the Junction.

Road construction will continue until winter and be completed sometime next spring within 110 workdays. The contractor is Gary Merlino Construction Co. Inc.

Much of California Avenue's road base is broken, particularly the center lane, said Jessica Murphy, project manager for the Seattle Department of Transportation.

Beneath California Avenue's top layer of asphalt is the road base. It's composed of a sub layer, 6 to 10 inches thick that spreads the full width of the street. Some sections of the sub layer are made of concrete and others asphalt. Below the road base is a layer of crushed rock.

Much of California Avenue's center turn lane was not installed correctly so almost all of the center lane within the project area will be replaced, Murphy said.

Other sections of the road base must be fixed because of poor patches made in the road surface for sewer hookups, waterline repairs and other utility work over the years.

About 2 inches of existing asphalt will be ground off with heavy equipment. Then the road base will be repaired. Repaving comes next followed by restriping.

The pavement improvements are intended to last 20 to 25 years, Murphy said.

First on the work list will be installation of missing wheelchair ramps at 14 intersections. Some intersections need more pedestrian improvements than others.

The West Seattle Junction Association met with Seattle Department of Transportation officials and told them they wanted to keep the "scramble" or walk-all-ways signal at California Avenue and Alaska Street, said Dave Montoure, president of the Junction Association.

Junction merchants told transportation officials they wanted to maintain four lanes of traffic between Oregon to Edmunds streets.

They also wanted to preserve the two midblock crosswalks and have no net loss in the number of parking spaces, Montoure said.

City transportation officials want to make the midblock crosswalks safer. The city is considering two proposals and invites public comments about which idea would work best.

One of the city's ideas is to install new traffic signals that could stop cars with a red light activated by pedestrians.

The other proposal is to put in raised crosswalks described as gentle speed bumps. They would be built to the same height as the adjoining sidewalks.

Five pedestrians have been hit by cars in the Junction's midblock crosswalks in the past 10 years, said Megan Hoyt, a pedestrian safety engineer for the city transportation department. Though that's not considered a high accident rate, the city wants to design for future safety needs too, she said.

Pedestrian-controlled crosswalks combined with the walk-all-ways intersection make traffic synchronization impossible in the Junction, Hoyt said. That is the coordinated timing of traffic signals to keep cars moving efficiently.

"There will be a little more delay for cars and pedestrians (in the Junction)," she said.

The crosswalk at California Avenue and Hinds Street is on the south side of the intersection while the pedestrian island is on the north side. The city wants to move the crosswalk north to connect with the pedestrian island.

The repaving project includes work on Admiral Way too, from 41st Avenue eastward to Olga Street just south of the Admiral Viewpoint.

A pedestrian-controlled traffic signal is to be installed on Admiral Way at the Olga Street crosswalk.

Three other crosswalks on Admiral Way - at City View and at Hanford streets as well as near Harbor Avenue - are being removed. City View and Hanford are little used and the crosswalk by Harbor Avenue leads nowhere.

Anyone wishing to comment on any aspect of this project should call George Frost, public outreach coordinator, at 615-0786 or contact him by e-mail to george.frost@seattle.gov

Tim St. Clair can be reached at tstclair@robinsonnews.com or 932-0300.