(WSDOT photo from last month)

10:10 AM: During the City Council meeting that just got under way – as we’re reported and previewed – councilmembers are due to get an update on the Highway 99 tunnel project and the upcoming related Alaskan Way Viaduct closure. However, it doesn’t appear the long-awaited closure start date will be part of that briefing. WSDOT has just published the first official update in a week in a half and it again reiterates that date “isn’t yet known”:

Seattle Tunnel Partners has now completed more than 100 shifts of hyperbaric work inside the SR 99 tunneling machine. One of their biggest tasks – inspecting and replacing cutting tools on the machine’s face – is now complete.

Cutting tools are expected to wear down over time, and replacing them is a normal part of tunneling. Because most of the machine’s tools were replaced during the repair effort, STP chose to replace only 11 of the more than 700 tools they inspected in the weeks since the machine reached its planned maintenance stop near Yesler Way.

STP still has some routine maintenance left to complete. They have told us that the machine is functioning as intended and will soon be ready to tunnel beneath the Alaskan Way Viaduct. WSDOT will close the viaduct for approximately two weeks to allow the machine to pass beneath the structure. We will provide the public with advance notice of the closure, but the start date isn’t yet known. It will depend on how long the remaining maintenance takes to complete.

The update published on the WSDOT website also includes a reminder of the closure-plans website 99closure.org.

Meantime, we’ll update here when the council briefing gets under way (scheduled for 10:25 am – about 15 minutes from now) and will add any additional news that emerges.

10:28 AM: The briefing is starting – you can watch live via Seattle Channel, seattlechannel.org or cable channel 21.

(ADDED TUESDAY: Seattle Channel video of entire briefing)

They’re leading off with a “litigation update” – saying they’re “negotiating with STP about issues in dispute on the project,” so they might not be able to answer all questions.

WSDOT’s Todd Trepanier mentions STP bringing in new top managers from an overseas project and Councilmember Mike O’Brien breaks in to say “that we haven’t had the A-team on this since day one just kinda blows my mind.”

Back to what’s happening now, in addition to what WSDOT said this morning (see top of this story), Trepanier says, “(The contractors) still have quite a bit of work to do within the machine at the Safe Haven 3 location” where it’s stopped now.

10:48 AM: Now the briefing has moved to the closure preps, which have included weekly coordination meetings, WSDOT says. They reiterate that they’re committed to giving two weeks notice once the date has been chosen, which hasn’t happened yet, because as mentioned earlier, there’s still a lot to do. “Within the next month” remains their target. They’re reiterating that it’s a precautionary closure but its potential benefits would include quick access to the Viaduct if necessary.

It’s been reiterated, also, that the Viaduct itself is the only thing planned for closure – surface streets/sidewalks will remain open, though if something requires those to be closed, they have a contingency plan for that too. Meantime, the tunneling will continue around the clock during the trip under the Viaduct, with two 12-hour shifts instead of two 10-hour shifts as has been the contractor’s practice.

Trepanier says they will have a 24-hour command center open during the under-the-Viaduct tunneling, including city reps, as they make decisions bout managing traffic as well as tunneling operations. And they’re planning three conference calls a day.

11:05 AM: For the city, SDOT director Scott Kubly is speaking. The city will have incident-response teams and additional messaging signs. He also says that besides working with Metro and the Water Taxi, the city is “encouraging and working with” Uber and Lyft regarding their carpooling services. Council President Bruce Harrell asks followup saying city must be careful not to show favoritism over legacy taxi services, etc. Kubly says the city will add signal-timing engineer in Transportation Ops Center 6:30 am-8 pm during closure so there can be quick responses if intersection problems emerge. “It’s going to be a challenging commute … removing 60,000 vehicles and 30,000 transit riders off the Viaduct,” he says. Councilmember Lisa Herbold asks who’s in charge of the public notices regarding all this; she’s told the communications overview is coming up.

11:12 AM: Now it’s Metro’s turn. As previously announced, northbound reroutes are going on 4th Avenue. Herbold asks if the 5th Avenue busway was considered. “There’s a limited capacity (on that),” is the reply.

Councilmember Lorena González (a West Seattle resident) asks about the plans for getting people to the dock to use the Water Taxi without getting caught in the parking crunch down there. Though it hasn’t been detailed during this briefing, that’s mentioned toward the end of the slide deck (which you can see here). And the briefing wraps at 11:22. (We’ll add the archived meeting video atop this story once Seattle Channel has it up, likely by end of the day.)