Local News

Not only are Seattle area freeway trips getting slower, they’ve also been highly unpredictable lately, as this three-year chart by bus commuter Tim Ellis shows. Ellis rides the Sound Transit 510 bus, and he plotted weekday trip times from the I-5 Broadway Avenue onramp (two minutes south of Everett Station) to the I-5 Stewart Street exit in…

UPDATE, 6:24 a.m. | The accident in the Battery Street Tunnel has cleared and all lanes are open, but long delays are expected as traffic begins to clear, according to the Seattle Department of Transportation. ORIGINAL POST | A collision at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday closed all northbound lanes of Highway 99 through the Battery Street tunnel…

UPDATE, 9 a.m. | The Everett-to-Seattle commute is now up to 130 minutes, the same as Tuesday, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation. Seattle Department of Transportation reports two stalls on the West Seattle Bridge before Delridge, adding to existing congestion. WSDOT crews are working to drain large puddles on the freeways as well. UPDATE,…

UPDATE, 9:15 a.m. | The accidents have cleared, according to the WSDOT. UPDATE, 7:20 a.m. | The northbound I-5 backup near Martin Luther King, Jr. Way is about five miles as the two right lanes remain blocked from the earlier collision, according to a WSDOT tweet. UPDATE, 7:37 a.m. | All lanes of northbound I-5 except the…

If you’re serious about driving from Everett to Seattle in time for work, you need to reach Interstate 5 a full 18 minutes earlier than two years ago. That’s one finding in the state’s annual Corridor Capacity Report, which measured an astounding 57 percent increase in total hours of delay for the entire I-5 corridor…

Several minor crashes and stalls — and in some cases no obvious reasons at all — slowed the morning commute throughout the Puget Sound region, where roads were wet from heavy overnight rain. The state transportation department reported commutes double and sometimes triple — or more — the normal time Tuesday morning. A crash on southbound Interstate 5…

Cars and bikes will have to merge together this week on southbound Dexter Avenue North, which is being narrowed to just one lane starting at 8 p.m. Tuesday, until Friday morning, for a sewer project. Work will take place between Roy and Mercer streets in the booming South Lake Union area. The Seattle Department of Transportation…

The weirdest stories on seattletimes.com this week ran the gamut from mythical creatures up for debate to actual creatures out for a stroll. It was also a week of extremes: record heat, record rainfall (thanks, nature!), and what are likely some of the highest Web traffic numbers a year-old Times story has ever gotten (thanks, Facebook!). Read…

UPDATE:  6:45 a.m. | The HOV lanes are open at the crash site, according to WSDOT. ORIGINAL POST: A crash on northbound I-405 at Highway 167 in Renton has closed all lanes, according to the state Transportation Department. However, traffic was squeezing by on the left shoulder. WSDOT says you can bypass the accident scene by taking the exit…

Portions of Highway 99 in central Seattle will close in late August for two days of repairs in Sodo and a four-day bridge removal near Seattle Center. The work starts late Friday, Aug. 22 and wraps up at 5 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 27. The state’s project homepage is here. The plan: An overpass where Aurora Avenue North…