Scope & Impact

16th Avenue Southwest will be closed between Sylvester Street Southwest and Water Street Southwest during the work. Detour routes will be in place. Work will include use of a big crane. There will be noise impacts from chain saws and grinders.  Portions of the Pritchard parking lot and the sidewalk adjacent to the southern edge of the parking lot will be closed.

Where

16th Avenue and Sylvester Street, Pritchard parking lot.

When

The sidewalk and a portion of the parking lot around the tree will be blocked off Sept. 15 to 22 to prepare for the work. The road closure and tree removal will occur between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Sept. 22.

Why

The 100-year-old bigleaf maple has reached the end of its life span and is decaying from within. The 60-foot-tall tree with an 80-foot-wide canopy poses a safety risk to pedestrians and parkers and needs to be removed. It will be replaced with three ponderosa pine trees, which will be planted during landscape work for the Pritchard Rehabilitation Project. DES and a landscape peer review committee determined that another bigleaf maple would be unlikely to thrive in that location. The replacement plan aligns with urban forestry principles used to manage the Capitol Campus, which is an accredited arboretum.

All work is weather dependent. The Washington State Department of Enterprise Services has contracted with Tree Walker of Olympia for this effort.