Local News

Video: Viadoom work week traffic time-lapse

A time-lapse of traffic maps and traffic camera images show how traffic was affected between Monday, Oct. 24, and Friday, Oct. 28, during the closure of the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

0 comments | More in Traffic & Transit | Topics: time lapse, viadoom, viaduct

Monday's post-Viadoom drive: business as usual

Despite government warnings about driver confusion, the only haunting in Monday’s post-Viadoom commute came from the mangled skeleton of the demolished elevated highway.

A drive at 8:25 a.m. from West Seattle to South Lake Union took about 35 minutes, similar to the pre-Viadoom pace.  “Overall, I think it was kind of back to business as usual,” said spokesman Travis Phelps. There were no stalls, no accidents. It seems that people took their time as they sampled the new curves and lanes, he said.

A new bottleneck has been added near the stadiums, where a busy new merge lane takes traffic from the stadiums onto the new four-lane, northbound highway detour.

But despite that pinch point,  there was less of a clog than usual Monday on the crest of the West Seattle Bridge — where cars used to block the bus lane as they tried to enter the exit-only lane to Highway 99.  The lineups often went back to Delridge Way Southwest, blocking those drivers from the bridge. That clog could return, though, because Highway 99 still shrinks from three-to-two lanes northbound near Spokane Street, where traffic converges from the airport-area suburbs.

A 2,800-foot segment of the old Alaskan Way Viaduct was demolished from Oct. 21-29, to make room for new highway decks. A stadium interchange and deep-bore tunnel are to be finished by 2016. Until then, north- and southbound traffic will share what will become the permanent, three-lane southbound Sodo overpass. The speed limit is 40 mph, including a 25 mph advisory speed on a curve near the stadiums. An animation is here.

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Alaskan Way Viaduct reopens two days early

The Alaskan Way Viaduct reopened Saturday with a new landscape and a two-lane configuration. (Photo by Mark Harrison / The Seattle Times)

The southbound Alaskan Way Viaduct reopened today shortly after 11 a.m., more than 40 hours earlier than expected when the state announced the nine-day closure for demolition and detour work. The northbound lanes opened at 12:45 p.m.

Drivers now will use  a new viaduct overpass at the train tracks in Sodo. Then the detour curves through a 25 mph zone. The speed limit for the entire Viaduct, including the waterfront, has been reduced to 40 mph. The detour will remain in effect until the start of 2016, when the state is scheduled to open a downtown bypass and stadium interchange, altogether a $3.2 billion replacement for the 1950′s vintage elevated highway.

Click here to read a recent story with links about the tunnel project, including what was accomplished during the weeklong closure.

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The Morning Memo / Saturday: Suicide attack kills 13 Americans, Viadoom ends

Weather: Mid-50s, mostly clear and sunny, with only a slight chance of rain. What more can you ask for on a Saturday in late October here in the Pacific Northwest? If you’re one of those people who loves to be out in nature (and we know you’re around), don’t procrastinate — Sunday’s forecast is showing certain rain. Monday should be drier but colder, with lows nearing the 30s. So bundle up those trick-or-treaters. Get all the details here.

Traffic: Viadoom will end sometime midday today, the state Department of Transportation promises. That’s nearly two full days early, if you’re keeping score. So far this morning, traffic’s been light and moving right along in the region.

Suicide attack: Thirteen American troops were killed in Kabul today, when a Taliban suicide bomber rammed a van into an armored NATO bus, the Associated Press is reporting. No word yet on where the soldiers were from.

Good news: In case you missed it, April Lutz, the girl randomly attacked in a Snohomish High School bathroom and stabbed more than 20 times on Monday, is expected to leave the hospital today.

Power is back: If you’re reading this and live in the Richmond Beach area, you probably already know you were among the 3,000 or so people without power for as long as four hours this morning.  A downed line was the culprit.

Stories you might want to read today:

• Piggyback Bandit arrested (Helena Independent Record)
• Man finds $7,000, returns it to church (KING-TV)
• Occupy Tacoma a haven for the homeless (The News Tribune)

Most read stories on seattletimes.com this morning:

1. Bill Gates on being the top 1 percent, Fox News and taxes | Brier Dudley’s Blog
2. Calm heroes recall terrifying scene of Snohomish stabbing
3. Gregoire outlines grim choices for budget cuts
4. WWU admissions chief placed on leave
5. Alaskan Way Viaduct to reopen midday Saturday

0 comments | More in Morning Memo | Topics: viadoom, weather

W. Seattle water taxi resumes sailings

UPDATE 7:51 P.M.: A back-up ferry is on hand and ready to resume West Seattle water taxi sailings at Pier 50, according to King County.

UPDATE 6:00 P.M.:  Sailings on the Rachel Marie, the normal West Seattle water taxi, are cancelled through 7:15 p.m., King County says in a news release. The next scheduled sailing is at 7:30 p.m., although it is unclear if that will be delayed.

ORIGINAL POST: On a bad traffic night, one option just got suspended: King County announced there will be no more West Seattle water taxi sailings until 7:15 to 7:30 p.m. because of  “mechanical issues.”

It appears the boat is out of service; a Tweet from the King County Twitter account said the Vashon water taxi will pick up all evening sailings.

King County tweet

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Viadoom: Several highways at a standstill tonight

UPDATE 7:24 p.m.:  Gridlock on I-5 southbound into Seattle is easing a bit later in the rush hour commute. Traffic is backed up about 10 miles on I-5 south from N.E. 145th St. to I-90, causing the Lynnwood-to-Seattle drive to take about an hour, down from nearly two hours earlier in the evening.

ORIGINAL POST: After an easy morning commute, several highways are paralyzed by the combination of a Friday exodus,  rain-challenged drivers and fewer options because of the “Viadoom” demolition work on Highway 99. Accidents have happened all over the Seattle area.

The state shortly after 6 p.m. issued a new release asking drivers to wait until after 7 p.m. before hitting the road.

The trip from Everett to Seattle has taken as long as two hours, and even at 5:20 p.m.  it took 100 minutes, said Mark Leth, regional traffic engineer as the state Department of Transportation’s control center in Shoreline. Currently, Interstate 5 is stop-and-go, shown as black in the state’s regional traffic map here, all the way from Mountlake Terrace to the Highway 520 exit.

“It’s Friday, it’s raining, we’ve had a number of fender benders that have added to the mix, and people trying to get places, all this being at the same time,” Leth said. Viadoom is “a factor,” he said, because drivers have adapted by stretching their commutes so the peak starts at 3 p.m. and lingers until 7 p.m.

Several routes, including northbound I-5 and eastbound I-90 out of Seattle, are actually free-flowing, he said — because traffic can’t get out of downtown to reach them, said Leth. Anecdotally, several travelers are tweeting on #viadoom and they’ve been stuck on side streets.

Meanwhile, the state announced it will reopen Highway 99 as a four-lane detour route in Sodo on Saturday, to last until a stadium interchange and deep-bore tunnel are done in 2016. And the city will open a bike trail along west Beacon Hill on Saturday afternoon.

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Alaskan Way Viaduct to reopen midday Saturday

The state Department of Transportation just announced that the Alaskan Way Viaduct will reopen by midday Saturday, because demolition has gone well all week.

The northbound lanes already are open from Royal Brougham Way to the Battery Street Tunnel and South Lake Union. The rest of the highway had been scheduled to reopen Monday morning.  See the full story…

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Thursday's arrival of 'Viadoom,' told through Twitter

Viadoom congestion caused by the closure of the Alaskan Way Viaduct finally lived up to the hype during the evening commute on Day 7, Oct. 27, 2011. Below are a few tweets from commuters.

View the story “Viadoom arrives” on Storify]

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Viadoom commuters settle into a slow but steady routine

Seattle-area commuters this morning continued to detour, stay home or take transit to deal with the Viadoom highway closure  – instead of backsliding into gridlock as traffic officials feared.

People have settled into a routine of leaving home up to an hour early, so that peaks begin at 6:30 a.m. and start to subside by 8 a.m.

“Traffic congestion, when it was happening, was showing up like clockwork,” says Jim Bak, community relations director for the Kirkland-based INRIX traffic data firm. The West Seattle Bridge turned slow before 7 a.m., as television footage showed brake lights glowing through the fog eastbound. Even at 8:30 a.m., as some highways cleared, traffic stayed thick on inbound South Spokane Street, and First Avenue South entering the city. A drive from West Seattle to South Lake Union took 35 minutes, with some intersections too crowded to enter on green lights — not good, but tolerable. King County Metro Transit reported general slowdowns in Sodo but no major morning delays.

Traffic is delayed 24 minutes just before noon from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to downtown, KIRO TV reports.  Overall, driving does appear to still be down about 20 percent from normal patterns, Bak said.

But he won’t yet guess whether the afternoon commute will be okay.

The big wildcard is BNSF Railway train traffic in Sodo, where there were at least three stoppages Wednesday everning, according to West Seattle Blog. Will those happen again today? According to spokesman Gus Melonas, rail traffic is below normal this week, but BNSF must do more assembly of its long trains in Sodo, because its tail track north of the Seattle International Gateway yard is blocked by the Viaduct demolition. Also, traffic along waterfront Alaskan Way southbound, or leaving the Colman Dock ferry terminal, jammed for a half-mile Wednesday, and the handful of downtown streets, such as Fifth Avenue and east-west Denny Way, have been rough all week.

In related news, the northbound lanes of the old Viaduct are now permanently open from Royal Brougham Way up-ramp all the way to South Lake Union.  The route expands from two lanes to four, once cars reach the top deck — and most drivers seemed to be hitting the gas pedal then, rather than adhering to the new, lowered 40 mph speed limit.

Starting next week, the state will open a four-lane, four-year detour on Highway 99 in Sodo, to stay in place until a new stadium interchange and deep-bore tunnel are ready by 2016.

Bak warns of a “new normal,” in which Seattle commuters will face worse traffic — similar to Tuesday afternoon’s — after the Viadoom event. Ongoing construction in the central city, along with coming tolls on Highway 520, and future economic recovery, ought to boost traffic. Both the tunnel, and greater transit options, will be needed, he said.

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Time-lapse bicycle commute from West Seattle

Join Seattle Times transportation writer Michael Lindblom on his morning 8-mile bicycle commute from West Seattle to The Seattle Times building in South Lake Union during viaduct demolition on Oct. 26, 2011. He captured the commute in a time-lapse video from a helmet-cam.

0 comments | More in General news, Traffic & Transit, Video | Topics: bicycling, commute, viadoom