(Click any view for a close-up; more cameras on the WSB Traffic page)
6:27 AM: Good morning! It’s Friday, and now a week away from the Alaskan Way Viaduct’s two-weeks-or-so closure. SDOT has just reported a crash at 26th and Roxbury. No word on traffic effects but there’s no associated Seattle Fire dispatch so apparently no major injuries.
Updates and reminders, starting with one big one:
FAUNTLEROY EXPRESSWAY WORK POSTPONED: We received and published the news late yesterday – SDOT’s spokesperson for the Fauntleroy Expressway earthquake-safety-pad-re-replacement project says its start will be delayed until at least mid-May. This is the project that will bring overnight closures of the west end of the West Seattle Bridge and lane closures day AND night on surface Spokane St. beneath it. Those closures had been announced as starting next Wednesday.
VIADUCT CLOSURE STARTS NEXT FRIDAY: Early next Friday (April 29th) morning, Highway 99 will be closed between the Battery Street Tunnel and the West Seattle Bridge, for about two weeks – however long it takes for the tunneling machine to go beneath the Alaskan Way Viaduct. (There will be progress reports at least once a day here.) Is your plan all set? Any questions still unanswered?
WHAT’S CHANGED SINCE 2011 ‘VIADOOM’: We’ve been thinking about this one – some major additions to the local transportation scene since the fall 2011 one-week-plus Viaduct closure:
–1st Avenue ramp to/from westbound bridge (opened late summer 2012)
–RapidRide C Line (launched September 2012)
–South Park Bridge open (new one opened in June 2014)
-Larger West Seattle Water Taxi (Doc Maynard, double the capacity of Spirit of Kingston, took over the route in January of this year)
Anything to add? Also notable, SDOT says fewer vehicles use the Viaduct now compared to then, 90,000/day compared to 110,000/day. And conversely, more use transit. But this all means that even if you have a crystal-clear memory of how things went in 2011, it might not apply.
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