Well, this isn’t exactly at the level of UFOs being definitely revealed to be aliens from another world or a “Loch Ness Monster” emerging from Lake Union, but …
In walking around south Wallingford (between about Wallingford Ave and Eastern and south of 40th), I couldn’t help but notice lots of lines painted on the street and even on the grass. They seem to be intended as a guide to upcoming work. I immediately suspected an SDOT project.
I had a close look at their projects page (which is really nice and well organized, by the way!), but I didn’t see anything that might be related. The markings are pretty widespread throughout the area, so it’s not the work of, say, a single contractor working on a house.
You may have seen the question I posed about these lines in our General Forum to see if any of you readers could help out.
Mike Ruby offered:
Those are “locate” lines. They show where water lines, gas lines, sewers, etc. are located so the folks who dig things up won’t break them. Each color is for a different type of supply/waste line.
And galaoxides added:
When our ground was recently ‘graffitied’, signalling our impending ouster and the death knell of yet another Seattle institution, the colors went like this: orange, H2O & sewer; blue, gas; red, electrical (U-dist is all underground electrical). This graffiti was to support the soil sample drill rig, whose crew had their own set indecipherable graffiti.
I sent SDOT an email, and received a response from Brooklyn Jarrett, one of their Customer Service Representatives. His response: “That is a Seattle City Light project. You will want to contact them at 206-684-3000. Have a great day!”
So, of course I then sent an email to City Light. As of this moment, I’m still waiting to hear back from them, but I’ve completely run out of time for this article. I’ll repost with any new information I hear.