(SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATES)

(Top L, north of 1st Av. S. Bridge; top R, 1st @ Holgate; below L, I-5 on south end of downtown; below R, 12th headed for bridge to Beacon Hill, where there’s alternate WS Bridge access)

First update: Traffic is slow EASTBOUND on the high bridge right now. More to come – we’ll be hitting the road in a few minutes to get a firsthand look, and please let us know what you are seeing (if you can send info safely, such as, from a bus!).

4:14 PM UPDATE: Travel times show 4th is in better shape than 1st right now.

4:35 PM UPDATE: On the road now. High bridge looks better, peeking up the onramp from Avalon. Busy stream coming off the low bridge – here comes the 54 and the 55, homeward bound. And another 54.

4:40 PM UPDATE: Problem – stalled truck eastbound on the low bridge.
Lineup building behind it.

High bridge is busy eastbound from 99 forward. Westbound looks OK. We’re on 1st Avenue South now – past the Hanford detour, which we’ll check out in a minute – looks busier toward downtown than heading away. … Scratch that. Avoid 1st South. The backup from the detour is significant. A Bainbridge Island school bus is even stuck in it (checking, we think they’re headed for a match in West Seattle).

4:50 PM UPDATE: The stalled semi is still on the westbound low bridge, according to the scanner. Detour to the 1st Avenue South Bridge if you can. Take 4th or 6th to get to Michigan, which connects eastward.

5 PM UPDATE: We’re on southbound 4th now. Looks good through SODO. We’ll see what happens when we get close to 1st South Bridge turnoff. Text from someone on a bus says police have blocked off scene of stalled semi on low bridge.

5:14 PM UPDATE: WSB commenter Travis says the stalled semi is being towed. However, keep in mind, it takes a while to clear backups, even after the reason for the backup is fixed – so 1st is likely to be bad for a while. We took 4th, which was backed up a few blocks from the turn for the 1st Avenue South Bridge; we detoured to 6th per recent advice from a friend, and are now on Michigan heading for the 1st S. Bridge. Just found this “live” view of the low bridge on a camera that usually points elsewhere:

… Now we’ve crossed the 1st Avenue South Bridge. Looks good heading homeward-bound once you’re on it. Even if you’re in north WS, you can get off and head toward Highland Park Way but stay right to keep on West Marginal, which will take you up to Spokane St. under the bridge and on to Avalon, Admiral, Harbor, etc. … Oh well, now that camera is back to the bridge approach (looking east on Spokane), maybe helpful anyway.

5:35 PM UPDATE: Commenter says the 5:15 pm Water Taxi was full. Another one says tempers are short in the 1st Avenue South backup. Firsthand reports helpful – don’t type while driving, though! – our road crew is back at HQ as we have to cover a 6 pm community meeting (though we will still be tracking traffic, too). We hope the Bainbridge Island girls’ volleyball team made it to Chief Sealth for their 5:30 pm match against Holy Names (winner of that one plays Sealth at 7:30) – we noted a sighting of their bus in the 1st S. backup at 4:40! Appears some commuters have detoured to Water Taxi; commenter says 5:15 pm was full, and Bill in the 5:45 line says it looks like a full house will ensue for that sailing too.

6:08 PM UPDATE: The low bridge opened right after 6, as it has been doing pretty much every day this week. Remember, 3-6 pm was the only time period during which it was promised the bridge would stay closed to marine traffic. The Water Taxi has been sold out for the past two runs; if you travel on the 6:15 pm, let us know if it had to leave folks in line too!

6:35 PM UPDATE: We’re at a meeting in White Center where someone coming from the Eastside was supposed to be here half an hour ago – so that says something about the traffic. No real train trouble at Hanford this afternoon/evening, we’re told – unlike what we documented yesterday. (A TV crew was there to do a story, we’re told, so just figures it didn’t replicate.) … Wait, now an update from Michele (at 6:45), “stopped by a train on the second set of tracks.”

6:49 PM UPDATE: From Krista via Facebook: “Our 54 local bus driver is rocking it. Just did a 180 degree turn in an articulated bus to find us a better reroute that isn’t blocked by a train. There were at least 10 buses behind us stuck in the traffic on E Marginal Way. Still a loooong commute home tonight.”

7:24 PM UPDATE: Via Twitter, Gwen says some people are getting out and walking. (A few minutes later, we checked back with her, and she said that after half an hour on 1st S., her bus had finally moved, and was over the low bridge, “everything clear now.”)

(Click to see larger image)
Today’s afternoon/evening traffic update will start in a few minutes – but first, our bird’s-eye view, courtesy of Erick (in a crane!), of how the Alaskan Way Viaduct South End demolition was looking as of late this morning. An official update from WSDOT:

Overnight, crews continued to remove debris from the demolition site and removed steel protective plates from the roadway. Today, crews are concentrating their efforts on demolishing the lower bridge deck near South Atlantic Street, striping the new construction bypass and paving. Later tonight, crews will begin installing approximately 40 truckloads of concrete traffic safety barrier along 3,000 feet of the new bridge and bypass.

We also asked them what’s being done with the rubble, after a WSB’er sent us that question. From Viaduct project spokesperson Travis Phelps:

The concrete is going to Seattle Tunneling Parnters (our tunnel contractor). They’ll grind up the concrete and use it for creating roads in and through their workzone and form a launch pad for the boring machine. The rebar is being recycled.

Again, Highway 99 remains scheduled to reopen Monday morning at 5 am – but obviously it won’t be the same as it was – you’ll be driving a construction bypass till you get to the central portion, which will NOT be demolished till the tunnel is done (four-plus years).

P.S. For a time-lapse look at five days of demolition work – check out the video on this page from the Puget Sound Business Journal.

A WSB’er just e-mailed to note that despite traffic highs and lows for drivers and to some degree bus riders, bicycling is in his view “easy, free, clear, and very consistent. The best no-hassle commute.” Which brings us to the video above – transportation reporter Mike Lindblom from the Seattle Times (WSB partner) used a helmet cam to create a time-lapse video of his commute from West Seattle via bicycle yesterday, including a stop at the Cascade Bicycle Club/WSDOT station by the “low bridge” (we noted a cameo by Alki Bike and Board’s Stu Hennessey). In the second half of the clip, Mike slows it back down to real-time pace for a narrated tour past the Viaduct demolition. P.S. Cascade says it’ll have a station by the bridge on Monday too, 6:45-9 am, just to keep people motivated to keep commuting by bike.

(More cams on the WSB Traffic page; travel times on the city Travelers’ Info map)
Viaduct-less weekday 4 of 5, and we’re back on commute patrol – updates to come.

6:15 AM: The high bridge is starting to get busy – as has been the case every day this week. (…few mins later…) First Water Taxi run has 76 on board. After three days of TV crews at the dock, nobody there today but our crew. Lots of parking – if you’ve been off all week, remember there’s special parking 6 am-8 pm at Don Armeni Boat Ramp.

6:30 AM: One commenter says early traffic seemed a bit lighter than the first few days of the week. Right now, though, live cameras show the same 6:30 am bridge slowdown we’ve seen all week. That’s the high bridge, anyway; KING 5’s chopper just showed the low bridge as well, and it’s moving nicely.

6:45 AM: High bridge busy-busy. No problems around the heart of the metro area. Weather’s still dry, too, though the forecast had been iffy. 84 people on this run of the Water Taxi. Though the WT numbers are notably down from the Monday peak, if you’re a stats fan, still way up from the average (scroll down this page and you’ll see the 6:45 run in September, for example, averaged 15 passengers on Thursdays – even without the 6:15 am run that’s been added just for this week). Low bridge still looks lots better than the high bridge – if you are headed south, another reminder, the new East Marginal Way Grade Separation flyover is right there at the end of the road from the low bridge, taking you over the tracks and toward E. Marginal.

7 AM: High bridge slow, low bridge good, no problems on I-5 (or anywhere else around the heart of the metro area). KING reporter says the Port of Seattle told her the ship schedule is lighter today, so that means fewer trucks (and trains, perhaps? see our afternoon commute report yesterday, as we staked out the 1st So Hanford detour toward the low bridge). Scanner’s quiet this morning. Twitter quiet (whomever tweets for King County is soliciting Viaduct haiku). Preplanned 4-day weekends?

7:15 AM: Unless something unusual happens, we’re updating every quarter-hour this morning. The bridges have been reruns – so far! – of the past few mornings, high bridge busy but NOT total gridlock, low bridge running faster, buses doing well, 1st and 4th Ave. So. busy. We’re still watching the Water Taxi, as it’s continuing to run well above normal (but no sellout runs since Monday, so don’t worry about a wait). … 119 on the 7:15 run, which is up a few from yesterday.

7:30 AM: Water Taxi lot half-full, lots of parking remains (some on the street too). High bridge loosening up a bit earlier than yesterday, but still busy.

7:45 AM: The predictions that today might be the worst commute of the week due to complacency, reverting to old habits, etc., so far NOT bearing out. Water Taxi ridership up again for this run too – 125, our crew at the dock reports, up from 108 on the same run yesterday. That’s still NOT a sellout, so there’s room on board and room in parking. On the high bridge now, you don’t hit a backup till past the (closed) 99 exit. Police are out ticketing bus-lane violators again today, per commenter Karla.

8 AM: Water Taxi parking lot at Don Armeni is full. But there’s still street parking. High bridge same as last report – doesn’t slow down till you get to the downhill by what’s usually the Viaduct offramp.

8:20 AM: High bridge looks good now, even past 99. No problems except some fog if you’re heading to the eastside (as our Viaduct Crunch partners at KING 5 just showed on the I-90/Rainier Ave. view). Awaiting the 8:15 Water Taxi report. … here it is: 102 riders. Down a bit from yesterday (maybe those riders just timeshifted earlier). Lovely morning:

Tomorrow MIGHT see some rain, per the newest forecast …

8:45 AM: All’s well. If anything changes in the next hour or so, we’ll add it here … otherwise, it’s on to the news of the day, and to afternoon-commute monitoring starting between 3 and 4, depending on how things are going.

11:55 AM: Double-digit ticket totals for the bus-lane-violation patrol again today.