No Spokane Street Viaduct closure tonight; new schedule

SDOT has just changed the schedule for westbound Spokane Street Viaduct overnight closures – starting with tonight, when it will be OPEN after all. The new schedule calls for two more overnight closures, next Wednesday night (9 pm-5 am) and Thursday night (10 pm-5 am). Reminder that the closures mean the I-5 and Beacon Hill ramps to the West Seattle Bridge are closed; the 6th Avenue S. detour from southbound 5 isn’t easy to navigate, so plan your route beforehand.

JJ December 16, 2011 (11:20 am)

I got stuck in this last night at 10:30pm. I understand construction needs to be done, but this forces traffic down around the Sodo area–where no planning/control was done to accommodate the additional traffic.

At the two lights where everyone detouring needed to turn left, the short light cycle caused huge back ups. Trains blocking the key routes for a long stretch (not the quick ones like the Sounder, the block-backwards-forwards ones out of the trainyard) made it even worse.

If construction like this is going to happen, the city needs to provide traffic control to keep it moving. Hundreds of cars sat with nowhere to go. Two officers and keeping the trains from parking on the tracks during the construction could have done the job.

BuildIt December 16, 2011 (11:29 am)

Good point about the additional traffic control at intersections with signals. But if memory serves from the viaduct closure, BNSF couldn’t care less about blocking key intersections with trains. Maybe the Occupy movement should block their tracks to help commuters… ;-)

makepono December 16, 2011 (11:39 am)

With night time traffic lighter in Downtown, it would be worthwhile to exit I-5 at James and hop onto the Alaskan Way Viaduct at Columbia. This worked quite well for me during the previous westbound Spokane Street Viaduct closure at I-5.

Carolei December 16, 2011 (12:41 pm)

Am I understanding correctly that access to the bridge from 99 will still be available during the closures?

WSB December 16, 2011 (12:49 pm)

Yes; SSV closures don’t affect 99 access – TR

Look4wrd December 16, 2011 (9:46 pm)

I was in the back-up last night with JJ. Fortunately I missed the trains and perhaps the City cannot control those BUT it was maddening to sit in long lines of vehicles westbound on Hanford waiting for the light at E. Marginal and Hanford when there is next to no cross traffic. The City could prioritize that signal to benefit the detour traffic.

Sorry, comment time is over.