By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
WSDOT and King County Metro both had news for West Seattle commuters during the “one month till the 9-day closure” briefing that just wrapped up in the shadow of a soon-to-be-demolished Alaskan Way Viaduct section.
The toplines (per executives who happen also to be West Seattleites – Matt Preedy, deputy program director for WSDOT [photo right], and Christina O’Claire, senior transportation planner for Metro):
*The Avalon Way northbound bus lane through the Luna Park business district, expected to be installed sometime in the next few months as the county prepared for next year’s RapidRide debut, may be in place early – before the 9-day Viaduct closure. And that won’t be temporary – that would be permanent, even though RapidRide isn’t scheduled to start in West Seattle until fall of next year.
Seven more key points for West Seattle commuters, ahead:
*Metro expects that the average bus travel time between West Seattle and downtown will double during the closure.
*Some of the plans for “making it easier to get to the West Seattle Water Taxi” during the closure, as hinted during the original date announcement a few weeks ago, are taking shape. Key among them: Making Harbor Avenue an “all-day parking” zone for the duration. And they’re still talking with the Port of Seattle about some “temporary park and rides.”
*The West Seattle Bridge is one of the points that will get extra attention from WSDOT “incident response” trucks and Seattle PD officers during the closure, to keep it as free from extra trouble as possible.
*For those asking “what will the best routes be,” WSDOT says they wlll have specific point-to-point recommendations out within days.
*Only a few hundred yards of the Viaduct’s south end wlll be completely demolished during the closure; for the stretch south of there, Preedy says the top deck will be taken down all the way to Holgate, which is necessary because the new section of 99 can’t be opened with that deck still standing.
*The 9-day closure may end early. Preedy said that the contractor has a “disincentive” for running long – $100,000 a day – and may well take fewer than 9 days; the current schedule, closing the Viaduct 7:30 pm Friday, October 21st till 5 am, Monday, October 31st, is a generous estimate for how long it will take.
*WSDOT also issued a reminder that the northbound section will not be closed for the duration. While it will be closed completely to Royal Brougham in both directions, and southbound in its entirety from the Battery Street Tunnel to the West Seattle Bridge, you can get onto northbound 99 from the Royal Brougham onramp 5 am-7 pm weekdays, and other peak times.
More to come.
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