TRAFFIC/TRANSIT TODAY: What’s up for Tuesday, plus previews

(Four WS-relevant views; more cams on the WSB Traffic page)
Good morning!

ROAD WORK ALERT FOR TODAY: The Seattle Public Utilities project near Westwood is scheduled to continue today, to “pave 22nd Avenue SW between SW Barton Place and SW Barton Street from 7:30 am until as late as 6 pm. This work will require intermittent lane restrictions on SW Barton Place where it intersects 22nd Avenue SW [map], and on SW Barton Street between 21st Avenue SW and 23rd Avenue SW.”

REMINDER – WEEKEND CLOSURES: First, you might see northbound Alaskan Way Viaduct backups while Highway 99 closes both ways from the Battery Street Tunnel north to Valley St. in lower Queen Anne next weekend, Friday night (August 21) to early Monday (August 24) – details and maps here. Here in West Seattle, Alki/Harbor Avenues will be closed next Sunday morning (August 23) for the Alki Beach 5K (9 am start, but the closure will kick in sooner, and watch for the no-parking signs, too).

Happy Tuesday August 18, 2015 (8:43 am)

Eastbound backed up to 35th.

Happy Tuesday August 18, 2015 (8:47 am)

Likely due to previous and current nortbound I5 accidents.

schwaggy August 18, 2015 (9:28 am)

1.5 hours to go 7 miles to Queen Anne. Seriously, WTF!? I expected to find a plane crash on I5 but NOTHING. Must have been the sun in eyes causing this today, right?

WSB August 18, 2015 (10:18 am)

Nothing major – the last incident on the 911 log for NB I-5 was at 6:39 am and nothing for SFD on 99 *but* the twitter logs show both had non-injury incidents that apparently got in the way here and there. I’m thinking of adding an aggregated twitter box to the daily coverage a la Crime Watch for even-more-informed decisionmaking …

Happy Tuesday August 18, 2015 (11:44 am)

I feel your pain Schwaggy. Amazing how long the back ups take to clear even if an accident is cleared quickly. Lookie Loos and sunshine slowdowns too. There is something seriously wrong when it takes 1.5 hours to go to QA, what’s that 7 miles maybe? It’s been broke for awhile.

jtm August 18, 2015 (12:13 pm)

This was the WORST traffic day in a year, for me at least. Similar to above, 1.5 hours to lower Queen Anne. Wow. The port/trucking traffic also appeared to be crazy, which didn’t help.

Fed up August 18, 2015 (3:40 pm)

The Mayor and Mr Kubly are on it. Don’t worry :)

Andrew August 18, 2015 (6:54 pm)

It took the 8:02 Route 21 bus an hour to go from 35th and Avalon to 4th and Jackson, which usually takes 20 minutes. Really frustrating that there was neither an explanation nor news coverage from the local affiliates.

WSB August 18, 2015 (7:02 pm)

Usually the heads-up we get that things are uglier than usual is a text, often from somebody on a bus. Consider putting our number in your phone for a heads-up next time … 206-293-6302 … if by affiliates you mean legacy media, they probably aren’t going to care, but we will. Short of us sitting in a car riding back and forth across the bridge, there’s no way to know things are ugly without firsthand reports. And sometimes if we report it, especially on Twitter, or if we retweet somebody reporting it, that can lead to a little more attention from the folks who monitor traffic for SDOT, Metro, etc. because they also have imperfect monitoring methods … cameras, which aren’t everywhere, for example. – TR

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