If you live within a few blocks of 53rd and Alki avenues Southwest, the beautiful sites and sounds of sunsets and waves have yielded to a crescendo of nasty sounds and smells of construction due to "that pump station's" upgrade.

The 22-month long, $6 million 53rd Avenue Pump Station project that broke ground February came to and odorous apex in the wee hours of Thursday with half a dozen trucks, a backhoe, and an army of workers frantically transporting wastewater to the Alki Stormwater Treatment Plant on Beach Drive, and the West Seattle Pump Station at Harbor Drive. This was necessary to connect the new 24-inch force main pipe with existing sewer lines.

Now that the march of the stinky septic system has past, get ready to rumble. "Sheet pile driving" will commence at the end of July, or beginning of August. And if that sounds like a professional wrestling move, well, it's worse. The existing 40-by-30 foot underground station will be enlarged to 110-by-30 feet. That will require about 120 shoring sheets to be "vibrated" 35-feet into the ground.

"People should store their personal valuables that are now sitting on their shelves, or they may vibrate off," said Martha Tuttle, community relations, King County wastewater treatment, adding with a bit of whimsy, "like grandma's ashes from the movie 'Meet the Parents.'" Those fell off the mantle.

"We hope this phase of construction will last two to three weeks, but the contractors say prepare for up to five weeks," said Tuttle. "We know soils there are sandy, but we don't know if they might hit boulders or logs. Once the shoring sheets are in, they stay in."

She said that in some other types of construction shoring sheets are removed after permanent walls are built.

"At least people won't have to experience this twice."

"The existing equipment is over 50 years old," Tuttle said. "This is not as much about increasing capacity as it is about protecting public safety. Upgrades will include new electrical controls, odor control units, and a standby generator in case of a power outage to keep sewage moving so it does not overflow into the Sound."

Tuttle said that a similar upgrade project is planned for the North Barton Street Pump Station, and that the Murray Avenue Pump Station at Lowman Beach Park has new electrical controls but needs odor control units and a new standby generator.

She said she wants the public to know that "toward December, once we have the new underground structure built a lot of work over the following year will be underground and therefore less noisy."

While the project is about keeping the sewage moving, the two flaggers stationed at opposite ends of the construction are about keeping the traffic moving, as two lanes become one during the day. While nobody appreciates spotting that hand-held stop sign, the flaggers claim commuters have criticized them, particularly bicycle riders, in the media.

The conflict is that bike riders are expected by MKB Construction doing the work to dismount and walk their bikes along the sidewalk path past the construction, but some just peddle through.

"We are the face of this outfit," said flagger Dawn Ray, who feels that makes both she and her colleague, Denee Bragg, easy targets for criticism.

"The bicycle riders got together and wrote that 'the flaggers can't do anything to you,'" said Bragg, who can't recall the media source. "You know what? It's not about us. You're not going to hurt my feelings. You're going to hurt someone pushing a stroller. I'm here for the safety of everyone. They can ride their bike on the road, that's fine. If they want to act like a car, they can 'be a car.' But then they have to follow the same rules, and they usually don't."

Steve Shay may be contacted at steves@robinsonnews.com