People are driving on ‘closed’ street because SDOT used barriers to build a wall at police precinct instead

When the Seattle Department of Transportation announced their plan to turn a section of Lake Washington Blvd in south Seattle into a car-light Keep Moving Street," a July 21 department blog post noted that they would use heavy cement eco blocks" at many intersections along with signage to inform people driving that the road is closed to cars.

Two days after that blog post, SDOT crews used eco blocks to build a heavy wall around SPD's West Precinct downtown:

#HappeningNow - SDOT workers place cement barricades (Ecology Blocks) outside of the Seattle Police West Precinct in downtown Seattle. pic.twitter.com/P4rssuwMLm

- Omari Salisbury (@Omarisal) July 23, 2020

Now people are reporting that many people are driving on the supposedly closed Lake Washington Blvd, which can be dangerous to people walking and biking in the roadway as intended. One problem is that the wooden road closed signs are easily moved or knocked over. Why didn't SDOT install those eco blocks like they said they would? Yes Segura asked the department via Twitter, and SDOT responded that eco blocks are currently not in inventory."

Eco blocks are currently not in inventory and signs are being used instead. Should they become available before the closure ends, we'll look into placing them. Thank you!

- seattledot (@seattledot) July 30, 2020

So the city is literally using cement blocks intended to keep people safe in south Seattle to build a wall around the West Precinct instead. Wow.