TRAFFIC ALERT: Huge ferry traffic backup heading to Fauntleroy dock, and other problems

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4:11 PM: Thanks for the tips – we just verified the HUGE traffic backup headed toward the Fauntleroy ferry dock – backed up all the way to Fauntleroy/Raymond!

Washington State Ferries attributes it only to heavy outbound traffic.

4:34 PM: Via e-mail, WSF says vessels are ~45 minutes behind schedule because of major crashes on I-5. Checking on those.

4:39 PM: We’ll be folding in any other major traffic notes while monitoring this: Here’s one – southbound 16th is blocked at Elmgrove because of a car fire. We just went by – no injuries, and the fire apparently was mostly in the engine compartment. (Photo added:)

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Thanks to Erik for the tip!

5:09 PM: SFD has cleared the 16th call so that’s likely reopened. We’re about to head down the hill for another look at the ferry backup. Also remember that if you’re heading for the eastbound bridge – the tape tangle mentioned earlier could be a factor (some of it was even snagged on a utility pole on the south edge of the Luna Park district). And a City Light truck is reportedly in a hazardous spot around that section of the bridge. (Update: Commenter says the SCL worker is trying to pull in the aforementioned tape.)

5:58 PM: Ferry dock-bound backup on west/southbound Fauntleroy better but not by much – goes “just” to California now.

6:23 PM: Crash reported (via scanner) at 34th/Morgan, with westbound Morgan reported to be blocked right now.

7:44 PM: We finally got to go by that scene about 15 minutes ago – tow trucks had arrived so the scene should be clear soon if it isn’t already. No Seattle Fire dispatch, so apparently no injuries of note.

43 Replies to "TRAFFIC ALERT: Huge ferry traffic backup heading to Fauntleroy dock, and other problems"

  • MindDrive August 18, 2016 (4:20 pm)

    Worse now, at least to Juneau.  Locals seriously need to take alternate routes south of Alaska St.

  • WSince86 August 18, 2016 (4:22 pm)

    Saw that there as an hour wait for the ferry so left waaaay early. Finally got on the ferry at 4:00 after getting in line at the north parking lot at Lincoln park at 1:20. Now we’re waiting for the ferry in front of us to unload/load. 3 hours so far. At least I’m not on I-5!!

  • Dwight McCabe August 18, 2016 (4:22 pm)

    You might ask the WSF why they had ferries leaving with plenty of space open on board this afternoon.

  • Community Member August 18, 2016 (4:35 pm)

    Accident investigation on I-5 at Federal Way; drivers who usually take I-5 to Tacoma area are taking ferry instead. 

    Earlier, I-5 was completely closed both directions in Fife, so that also diverted drivers.

    For many drivers, “take alternate routes” means the ferry.

    • WSB August 18, 2016 (4:47 pm)

      Thanks, CM. The Fife thing was so early today, and so far, I wouldn’t have thought it would affect this area, but this just reminds us how interconnected everything is …

      • Community Member August 18, 2016 (4:59 pm)

        It sounded like the Federal Way accident was in the back-up from the Fife event.

      • datamuse August 19, 2016 (10:37 am)

        I left work in Tacoma at 3pm yesterday and there was still residual backup from that rollover even though the freeway had been open for a few hours by then. Plus southbound 5 starts backing up around that time of day anyway…

    • sam-c August 18, 2016 (4:53 pm)

      thanks for the clarification CM, couldn’t figure it out.

  • sam-c August 18, 2016 (4:36 pm)

    wait, what? is there something exciting happening on Vashon that I didn’t know about ?  Are the Seahawks playing on the high school field instead, or something?

  • RJB August 18, 2016 (4:53 pm)

    On the C on 99, we can barely get to the WS bridge, traffic backed on on 99…?

  • Helga August 18, 2016 (5:21 pm)

    Any idea why the intersection at 1st Ave S & E Marginal was flashing lights again for the 3rd or 4th time in the last week?

  • burglarbustingdad August 18, 2016 (5:26 pm)

    Please remember that many years ago proposal to expand the Fauntleroy dock to two slips and a larger holding area was rejected by the community.  Another option to eliminate the Fauntleroy dock and run the Vashon service to the downtown Coleman dock was also rejected.  The loss of funding for a full service passenger only boat has guaranteed the effort to “Keep Vashon Weird”!

  • AMD August 18, 2016 (5:27 pm)

    As Sound Transit tweeted, I-5 is having a bad day.  On top of that it looks like there was a traffic signal issue at 1st & Marginal (now resolved) that I’m sure left the viaduct and 1st Avenue bridges a hot mess.  Not a good day to be commuting much of anywhere (the north end is having their fair share of issues too).

    Yay for air conditioning in cars?

  • flimflam August 18, 2016 (5:32 pm)

    ” :34 PM: Via e-mail, WSF says vessels are ~45 minutes behind schedule because of major crashes on I-5. Checking on those.”

    ok, i’ll be the idiot to ask the question – how do crashes on I-5 cause a ferry to be late?

    • WSB August 18, 2016 (5:37 pm)

      Suggested by Community Member upthread: https://westseattleblog.com/2016/08/traffic-alert-huge-ferry-traffic-backup-heading-to-fauntleroy-dock/#comment-2043479

      May be more to it, though. The scanner mentioned a crash of some sort north of the dock; we traveled the opposite direction from Thistle to Alaska for the start of this story and saw nothing, but going back out now and will start south of the dock to see what’s happening right at the entrance. The WSF cameras in the dock area don’t show anything unusual, but are not terribly well-positioned:

      http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/vesselwatch/TerminalDetail.aspx?terminalid=9

    • K'lo August 18, 2016 (6:53 pm)

      sometimes the ferry supervisors will actually hold a boat in to fill it up rather that send it out empty. as is the case today, most of those folks in line do not have pre-paid tickets, so stopping at the booth to purchase also slows loading of both the dock and the boat. pack your patience folks! and don’t take it out on the terminal or vessel workers, they are doing the best they can with what they’ve got!

  • kate August 18, 2016 (5:33 pm)

    I do prefer keeping Vashon weird- even if I have wait in traffic.

  • MindDrive August 18, 2016 (5:36 pm)

    Cleared up just north of Morgan Jct anyway.

  • Cait August 18, 2016 (7:06 pm)

    This backup for the ferry has been happening daily for weeks, especially Thursday’s and Friday’s. People have been blocking in people who are parked on Fauntleroy making them unable to get past them. Was almost an hour last Friday. Can people who are waiting for the ferry PAST the designated waiting lane PLEASE let people out? It’s getting ridiculous and the lane of traffic is not the proper place to turn of your engine and shrug at me when I’m trying to leave my parking spot and get on the road? 

    • WSB August 18, 2016 (7:13 pm)

      We’ve noticed the Friday reports – but this one was, at least per the WSF reports, possibly a record-setter, 2+ hours backup, past California, so that’s what caught our attention, especially with the texts (which we don’t usually get on Fridays, I guess people are somewhat resigned to it). Sorry to hear it’s been an ongoing hassle.

    • wb August 18, 2016 (9:03 pm)

      I made the mistake one time, of driving up from the southend to get into the ferry line. Thinking i was at the end of the line, i pulled in behind the last car. I didnt realize there was a host of cars waiting beyond the driveway. I got beeped at, yelled at, and a guy got out of his car and started toward me. It was then i realized there were people sitting waiting in parked cars. I quickly corrected myself and hightailed it to the “real end” of the ferry line. The hostility was palpable.

    • Joe Dirt August 18, 2016 (9:07 pm)

      Sorry to hear this happened to you and others. Seems like people stopping and turning off their engine in a lane of traffic  is impeding traffic/illegal. 

      • Cait August 18, 2016 (10:09 pm)

        Yeah I figure it would have to be considered impeding traffic. I just don’t understand how people can think that’s OK when there are clearly people trying to get out?

  • M August 18, 2016 (7:42 pm)

    Easy breezy commute downtown to Vashon via water taxi…

  • Eddie August 18, 2016 (8:16 pm)

    Tell me again why Vashon to west seattle instead of vashon to downtown or vashon to 518/Burien makes sense? Why do we run all that “thru traffic” through the already access-handicapped west seattle corridor?

    • Joe Dirt August 18, 2016 (9:04 pm)

      I agree, especially now that WS has grown so much. 

    • John August 19, 2016 (6:36 am)

      I will tell you again Eddie.

      We said No!

      We the people refused to follow through with a proposed bridge to Vashon and a new  dedicated arterial running east/west  through  West Seattle.

      The remains of Puget Blvd. running diagonally across the Delridge valley are still there.

      Vashon Islanders as well as West Seattle homeowners brought it down with vocal opposition.

    • s August 19, 2016 (1:15 pm)

      Everything is handicapped. It’s not like West Seattle is the only place that has density and traffic. We need to get used to it because this area will only get more dense with time. Time to expand that ferry terminal to two slips so that ferry’s aren’t waiting for slips as often as they are now. And if that terminal waiting area gets  expanded like it was supposed to several years ago, there will be fewer cars lining up along Lincoln Park and beyond. Cars will also be able to get through the toll booths before the ferries get there, speeding up loading as well, and reducing the number of boats that leave with open space.

  • zephyr August 18, 2016 (9:32 pm)

    The Fauntleroy terminal services not just Vashon Island, but Southworth and the entire Kitsap and Olympic peninsula.  Folks are coming to West Seattle, Burien, SeaTac, Renton and other points south and west.  All those people don’t want to go to downtown Seattle.  Some people are going  downtown, but many aren’t.  There are also a number of commuters who work in SODO and Georgetown.   And not everyone commutes the same way each day.  Some days they take the Passenger Only to downtown, other days they take the bus from Vashon and yet other days they drive off island and take the ferry to Fauntleroy.  

  • The Truth August 18, 2016 (10:51 pm)

    Eddie,

    While agree that maybe there is a southern solution like Burien to relieve some of the WS bottle neck I am sure that a new ferry terminal will every be built on the P Sound because any neighborhood would sue to stop it.  We should build a larger dock in Fauntleroy to increase the efficiency of loading and reduce traffic back ups.  The neighborhood would sue like hell to stop it because it is “unsightly” or changes their view.  I didn’t get to sue when a no personality box house was built nest door that I consider ‘Unsightly” or changing my view but hey, I don’t have beach access home owner money.

  • Community Member August 18, 2016 (11:02 pm)

    Eddie and Joe – 

    We live in paradise, next to the water. Living next to the water means that there are boats, and boat traffic, and people who ride boats. 

    I used to live in Redmond. There were no ferries to deal with, because we weren’t next to the water.

    Vashon is our next-door neighbor. Vashon teenagers ride the ferry to take classes at South. Some West Seattle teens ride the ferry to attend Vashon High. 

    A larger dock would not be popular, but if Fauntleroy is often used as a waiting area, could a toll booth be added mid-Lincoln Park? 

    • s August 19, 2016 (1:25 pm)

      Eddie–It’s time to stop thinking about the ferry as just a nuisance, as “other” people coming to use “our” roads. West Seattle residents use that ferry to commute to Vashon or Southworth, and people who are not WS residents come through WS bringing dollars to local businesses. Community Member is correct–lots of West Seattle kids are on the 7:05am ferry from Fauntleroy to Vashon to attend the high school there. I take that ferry occasionally and there has got to be close to 100 students on that morning ferry to Vashon, no exaggeration.

  • dsa August 18, 2016 (11:02 pm)

    All that park space to the north of the dock could be used to expand the dock so that there would be reasonable dock storage space.  Instead the arterial is going to be used for storage for the foreseeable future.

  • dsa August 19, 2016 (12:08 am)

    Don’t worry the dock would never be expanded to the north if federal funds are involved.  Taking park lands for transportation is normally an absolute no-no

    • s August 19, 2016 (1:48 pm)

      It doesn’t need to involve park lands. They could just make the existing dock wider.

  • TheKing August 19, 2016 (3:20 am)

    Are you sure the picture of the back up isn’t 35th Ave SW ?

  • miws August 19, 2016 (8:39 am)

    THEKING, nope, Fauntleroy. Number one, the pic shows a curve, 35th is straight, number two, the “C” Line bus only runs along 35th from Roxbury down to Barton, on the inbound routing.

    Mike

  • CMP August 19, 2016 (9:15 am)

    I was impressed by the backup yesterday.  I decided to swim at Colman and was heading south on Fauntleroy when I noticed the backup around Graham.  I won’t tell you what shortcuts I took, but it worked and I got to the pool in time for lap swim to start.  Thank goodness for the middle lane west of California on Fauntleroy!  Perhaps Fauntleroy would benefit from better signage or an update board to better direct drivers when there are major delays like this.  Edmonds and Mukilteo seem better equipped with signage while our neighborhood just has a few permanent signs.  Some real time data would be nice for those of us that are just passing through the neighborhood.  

    • Brian August 19, 2016 (9:54 am)

       48th Ave SW isn’t exactly a “shortcut”.

  • sam-c August 19, 2016 (9:48 am)

    Well, too bad they put Fauntleroy on a road diet. That extra lane could have been handy for local traffic vs. ferry line up traffic.    

  • CMP August 19, 2016 (12:55 pm)

    That’s not the shortcut I took.  And the road diet didn’t have much impact.  Sure, Fauntleroy was backed up east of California for awhile but the major problem was west of California where Fauntleroy was already in its current configuration.  

  • Verdamt Cyclist August 19, 2016 (2:01 pm)

    It was a good day to be a cyclist. 

    I left the office at my usual time and got to the dock at my usual time.

    There were an awful lot of people trapped in cars to shoot right past, though….

  • watertowerjoey August 19, 2016 (3:12 pm)

    Vashon ferry should use the Coleman dock.

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