About 1 o’clock this afternoon – according to Brian Presser from TouchTech Systems in The Junction, who shared the photo – drivers heading westbound on the West Seattle Bridge would have seen that bumper-to-bumper traffic headed eastbound. (What? You left before West Seattle Community Garage Sale Day was over?) Backups have historically been fairly typical when the Alaskan Way Viaduct is closed – as WSDOT warned almost two weeks ago that it would be this weekend – but the photo gives us one more excuse to remind you that the reason for this closure will also affect Highway 99 drivers between West Seattle and downtown for at least the next few years: Crews are reconfiguring the section between The Bridge and the stadiums to be two lanes each way, to facilitate the next steps in construction of the South End (Holgate-to-King) Viaduct replacement (which is a separate project from the tunnel-or-? project for the Central Waterfront). So this is what you’ll find when The Viaduct reopens early Monday:
(It’s explained further here.) The vague end date is because, as WSDOT explains it, it all depends on what happens with the plan for the Central Waterfront section; the South End project, they say, is designed to connect to whatever eventually is built, tunnel or something else.
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