Traffic alert: Eastbound problem on The Bridge

Just passed a massive backup on the eastbound high bridge – radio report says it’s a car vs. motorcycle crash, nobody hurt but even as we saw the fire and police units just rushing to the scene about 10 minutes ago, the backup was already all the way to the 35th/Fauntleroy entrance. Not sure if Delridge/Admiral onramps are any better so if you have to use The Bridge, try alternate routes or just try waiting. Here’s the city cam looking westward over the eastbound backup (refresh this page for the newest image)

8:18 AM UPDATE: Radio report says the vehicles are now off to the side but the backup will persist a while.

mike April 30, 2008 (8:33 am)

Gotta luv the water taxi!

Anna April 30, 2008 (8:46 am)

Delridge bridge entrance is backed up about a mile down delridge. Yuck. I turned right back around and am going to go up 99. Looks like lots of other drivers are doing the same! 99 very congested and slow… Lame.

RobertSeattle April 30, 2008 (11:26 am)

Either get out of West Seattle before 6:45 AM or wait until 9 (AM, that is) :-)

toomanyratsinacageakaWS April 30, 2008 (11:50 am)

true dat

ML April 30, 2008 (2:03 pm)

This one sucked this AM. Too bad some of us work at Microsoft and can’t really avoid the bridge. C’est La Vie!

toomanyratsinacageakaWS April 30, 2008 (2:36 pm)

Guess we just need to get used to more of the same all in the name of “change”. Sounds good to me. Not!

rjb April 30, 2008 (3:39 pm)

I wish the traffic reporters would do a better job covering the WS bridge. While they were reporting that the accident had cleared and the situation was soooo much better, I couldn’t help but notice the stalled truck that continued to back up traffic.
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This is probably the 3rd stall in a little over a month that has backed up traffic, yet no mention on the radio traffic reports.

Todd April 30, 2008 (6:10 pm)

I so agree about the reporting .. tens of thousands of people live in the WS area and the bridge used to be a freeway yet no accidents, police activity, disabled vehicle, etc etc is reported in traffic reports. Another case of BOHICA I guess.

WSB April 30, 2008 (6:25 pm)

I can shine a little light on the matter, having come relatively recently from many years in local TV newsrooms that did traffic reporting (Adam Gehrke at my last station, Q13, is the absolute best IMO) — detecting trouble on the WS Bridge is tougher than detecting trouble on state-operated highways/freeways in the area, because of a variety of factors including no speed sensors on the bridge like the ones for many other stretches of highway (I-5 etc.) that tell WSDOT and proprietary networks like Traffic.com when there’s an anomaly, also including the fact the city camera network is not as comprehensive as the state’s setup – bottom line, it has as much to do with technology as anything, and since it’s a relatively closed loop – people from one neighborhood flowing in and out, rather than this being a major “through” route like I-5 or even 99, it doesn’t affect as many people when time comes to prioritize. And especially in the morning commute window, when, face it, the bridge is near-gridlock for long stretches anyway, even if a traffic reporter is looking at the city cameras, it’s hard to tell immediately when something has gone terribly wrong — TR

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