TRAFFIC ALERT UPDATE: Stuck truck towed, Battery Street Tunnel open again

(Stuck truck – image courtesy Laura James)

3:57 PM: An oversize truck got stuck in the northbound Battery Street Tunnel, and SDOT reports the backup is now four miles, past the West Seattle Bridge. A texter says southbound is slow too. So if you’re headed toward downtown, or northbound out of it, find another way, or wait a while.

4:30 PM: It’s actually a truck with an oversize load. No word yet about what’s planned to clear it, so this is likely going to be going on for some time.

4:47 PM: Now there’s also a crash reported on the southbound Viaduct before Columbia Street. So Highway 99 through downtown is in general a mess.

5:08 PM: The southbound crash is cleared. But still no news of what’ll be done to get the oversize truck unstuck in the BSTunnel.

6:05 PM: Now SDOT says the NB Battery Street Tunnel is closed to all traffic.

6:27 PM: The truck’s been towed out and all lanes of the tunnel are open again.

Roxburymom June 2, 2017 (4:14 pm)

I went through the tunnel about 2pm and it was at a slow roll all the way back to the downtown exit. The truck is stuck right before you exit the tunnel northbound in the left hand lane.. as I was coming back southbound about 2:30 It was a little heavier then the normal afternoon slow down of people starting to get off work. Northbound was at dead stop all the way to the the stadiums.

WSB June 2, 2017 (4:29 pm)

Thanks. It’s been stuck for a while and we wouldn’t usually cover a northbound incident during the pm commute but (a) this is unusual (b) we started hearing from multiple people about it and (c) it’s Friday night so more people than usual are likely to be outbound … Haven’t heard yet about a plan to clear it.

cjboffoli June 2, 2017 (4:40 pm)

Here we go again. Set a timer for 9 hours shall we?

ts June 2, 2017 (5:02 pm)

#seattle :)

Azimuth June 2, 2017 (4:43 pm)

@ 4:30

K'lo June 2, 2017 (5:38 pm)

If it’s a case of being too tall to, why not let some air out of the tires to make the load shorter?

waiting June 2, 2017 (6:18 pm)

Aren’t oversize loads supposed to have pilot cars to insure clearance?
- An oversize load hauler June 11, 2017 (9:59 am)
  
  Pilot cars are only necessary for special situations.
  
  Certain cities have requirements for height pole cars at lower than the state mandated heights.
  
  As it sits right now, height poles aren’t required in seattle until the Washington height limit is exceeded (16ft as I last recall).
  
  With this particular move he should have had a pilot driver to make sure he doesn’t miss any turns and to ensure safe movement of the load.

newnative June 2, 2017 (5:50 pm)

Yesterday was so fun missing connections that today I decided to walk from lower Queen Anne to 2nd and Columbia.

Former WS Res June 2, 2017 (8:44 pm)

No pilot cars for big rigs.

TheKing June 2, 2017 (9:48 pm)

Apparently they did not obtain the proper permit as required. This is going to be a huge situation when it happens in the new hole they dug.

WSB June 2, 2017 (10:00 pm)

FWIW I just looked it up out of curiosity and the vertical clearance of the new tunnel is a bit more than the BSTunnel – 15′ compared to 14 1/2′. Don’t know how much of a difference that would have made here.

KING’s coverage of tonight’s incident seems fairly thorough:
http://www.king5.com/news/local/semi-truck-stuck-in-battery-street-tunnel/445338204