Art or public nuisance?
Wet weather usually keeps the graffiti vandals at home. But WSDOT says with the mild weather, roadside spray paint scribbles are showing up more and forcing crews out in the field to clean it up.
“We have a lot more of it to deal with and a lot less people to do it,” says Vickie Sheehan, spokesperson for WSDOT.
Last year crews cleaned up about 226,000 sq/ft of graffiti! 
WSDOT does not have a designated ‘graffiti removal’ team so workers are being pulled from other project like pot hole repair, snow removal and bridge work to cover up the mess. Crews use power washers and paint to remove the graffiti.
“I think its crazy the places people get to,” says maintenance supervisor Tim Ditch. “They’ll walk out on ledges only six inches wide. We can’t do that so we have to do the work at night with a bucket truck.”
WSDOT’s Northwest Region spends between $120,000 and $145,000 per year for graffiti removal from the Canadian border to the King/Pierce County line. Graffiti removal cost for the region was $120,430 in 2011.
The Seattle “hot spots” include the Lakeview wall alongside northbound I-5, the I-5/I-90 interchange (Jose Reyes Bridge), the northbound I-5 columns by the old Rainier brewery, most sound walls along I-5, and along the Mercer Street ramps and tunnel.
“Its defacing public property,” Sheehan says. “If we commission someone to do a mural I would consider that artwork. This is just a nuisance.”