As of a few minutes ago, the northbound Alaskan Way Viaduct [“live” camera above] has reopened, following the southbound side [“live” camera below] by about half an hour.

And that concludes the almost-ten-day closure, five hours after today’s surprise announcement of an early ending to what was expected to be a shutdown lasting about two weeks. Full backstory in our afternoon report published right after the news broke.

8:18 PM: Carol points out in a comment that the ramp from the EB bridge is still blocked off – the camera verifies – so crews haven’t gotten there yet.

8:51 PM: WSDOT says the ramp is open now. (Here’s the camera view.)

9:18 PM: Thanks again to everybody who helped out by sharing commute reports this past week and a half – and remember that we have long been reporting on the morning commute every weekday, so we’ll be back at it tomorrow (just not quite as early!). And remember, another major project is ahead – overnight closures of the west end of the bridge, starting in a week, for the Fauntleroy Expressway seismic-cushion re-replacements.

9:58 PM: Just in case you missed this earlier: Metro’s plan:

All Metro routes that normally serve the Alaskan Way Viaduct will return to their regular routes and stops at the start of service Monday morning, May 9. … With the start of service on Monday, the bus stop on westbound Columbia Street at Second Avenue will reopen to regular transit service, and Viaduct buses will no longer serve the temporary stops they made in the SODO area on or near S Lander Street during last week’s closure.

All riders should note that Viaduct service will remain on the current reroutes throughout Sunday night and until about 4:30 AM on Monday.

And the Water Taxi will continue its extra West Seattle parking and extra Vashon runs for one last day, tomorrow morning. Then everything is back to normal Tuesday.

(7:01 PM UPDATE: The Viaduct is now open southbound)

ORIGINAL REPORT, 2:14 PM: Just in from WSDOT – The Alaskan Way Viaduct will be reopened in time for the Monday morning commute. The first news release:

After 10 days of around-the-clock tunneling, Bertha’s biggest hurdle is now behind her. That hurdle – the Alaskan Way Viaduct she was built to replace – will reopen for the Monday morning commute, bringing an early end to the much-anticipated #99closure.

Structural engineers with the Washington State Department of Transportation completed a thorough inspection of the viaduct on Sunday. Their inspection confirmed what a team of engineers observed throughout the past 10 days of tunneling: continued stability of the ground and the viaduct.

Contractor Seattle Tunnel Partners estimated that tunneling beneath the viaduct would take approximately two weeks. With the ground holding steady, and the most challenging part of the machine’s drive beneath the viaduct complete, WSDOT made the call to reopen both directions of State Route 99 through downtown.

“Closing a major highway is never easy, and the public deserves a big thank you for their patience and flexibility while this crucial work took place,” said Gov. Jay Inslee. “I would like to thank the WSDOT and STP project teams and construction crews on a job well done. To finish this piece of the project almost a week early is commendable. The planning and flexibility of commuters, along with strong coordination between WSDOT and partner agencies, ensured commuters had access to real-time information that helped them plan ahead.”

WSDOT temporarily closed SR 99 through Seattle so crews could more closely monitor the structure as the machine passed beneath. The tunnel team originally planned to keep the highway closed until after the machine had completely cleared the viaduct, but the success of the tunneling operation and the continued stability of the ground led to discussions of an early opening as work progressed.

By Friday, the machine had successfully tunneled through complex soils only 15 feet below the viaduct’s foundation – the closest the machine will come to any structure at any point in its drive beneath Seattle. On Sunday, STP completed installation of the rings beneath this critical location, clearing the way for the final inspection and the early opening of the highway. WSDOT’s 24-hour command center will remain open until the machine has successfully tunneled 385 feet, the distance at which it will be completely clear of the viaduct.

WSDOT worked closely with Seattle Department of Transportation, Seattle Police Department, King County Metro, King County Water Taxi, Sound Transit, Community Transit and the Port of Seattle to keep traffic moving and provide travel options for drivers during the closure.

“Removing traffic from the viaduct was critical to the success of this work, but we don’t want the closure to last a moment longer than it needs to,” said Acting Transportation Secretary Roger Millar. “I want to thank the WSDOT and STP project teams as well as our local partners for successfully managing the closure of a major highway in our system. And, a special thank you to the community for their patience. I hope commuters saw the value of having several transportation choices, and consider using alternatives to driving alone more regularly going forward.”

Millar said the success of STP’s drive beneath the viaduct will help build momentum for the remainder of the tunnel drive.

“The end of this closure marks a new beginning for the SR 99 Tunnel Project,” he said. “Much work remains, but we are encouraged by the contractor’s performance during this phase of the project. Our shared focus now, as it has been, is on delivering this tunnel to Washington taxpayers.”

ADDED 2:32 PM: The 99closure.org website has some additional practical details about how the closure will end – read the post in full here – some key points:

Water Taxi resumes regular service Tuesday morning, May 10
The King County Water Taxi will continue additional parking options at West Seattle (PDF) and additional sailings on the Vashon route (PDF) through the end of the day on Monday, May 9.
Regular West Seattle and Vashon Water Taxi service will start Tuesday morning, May 10.

Metro Transit returns to regular routing Monday, May 9
King County Metro Transit service will resume regular routing via the Alaskan Way Viaduct with the start of service Monday morning. At that time, the bus stop on Columbia Street at Second Avenue will also reopen.
Current surface street reroutes through SODO and temporary stops remain in effect for the remainder of Sunday, May 8.

Restrictions on city streets lifted for Monday morning commute
With the exception of parking restrictions along Harbor Avenue in West Seattle, temporary city street restrictions put in place for the closure will be lifted before Monday morning.

WSDOT is having a media conference call at 3 pm and we’ll be on it; updates to come.

3:15 PM: Just off that conference call. The big news – the Viaduct actually will reopen TONIGHT, per WSDOT’s Todd Trepanier. The barrier removal will start as soon as 4 pm – they’re calling in crews to get that done.

He said what makes the early reopening possible is the ground stabilization techniques that contractor Seattle Tunnel Partners has been using.

He also said that when the machine gets to the 380-or-so-foot spot, they’ll pause before going on to the next phase – they’ll continue working 24 hours a day until then.

7:01 PM: As reader Kyla reported in comments, the southbound Viaduct is now open. This camera is proof.

(UPDATED 4:54 PM – second eastbound West Seattle Bridge crash of the afternoon has cleared)

FIRST REPORT, 2:07 PM: Two notes on this ninth day of the Viaduct closure – first, a traffic alert:

If you’re heading out any time soon (2:07 pm as we publish this), take some extra time. And remember the warnings about all the SCHEDULED events happening as the weekend continues, including Sounders FC vs. San Jose at CenturyLink tonight (7 pm).

2:39 PM UPDATE: SDOT says the bridge crash has cleared.

BACK TO ORIGINAL REPORT: Meantime, a tunneling update:

Highway 99 tunneling crews continue to work 24/7, and WSDOT is publishing updates 7 days a week, too. This morning’s update via 99closure.org: 246 feet tunneled, of the ~385 feet that will get the machine clear of the Alaskan Way Viaduct’s underside; if you look at the map/graphic here, it’s already starting to get past the area in which the entire machine was beneath the Viaduct. Though it’s been monitoring and inspecting the structure throughout the process, WSDOT says it will do one more major inspection – similar to the ones for which it closes the Viaduct for a day or so each spring and fall – once it gets word the machine is completely clear of the ~385-foot stretch.

3:04 PM: WSDOT has just posted today’s second tunneling update – 266.5 feet now dug, of the beneath-Viaduct ~385 feet. That’s more than two-thirds of the way.

3:15 PM: Another crash on the eastbound West Seattle Bridge, this time in the left lanes just before the 4th Avenue exit. Thanks to the texter who sent us first word. We confirmed it via the live camera from the SDOT Travelers Map.

3:19 PM: SDOT has it now:

3:30 PM: Here’s some video recorded off the SDOT Travelers Map’s live camera (not embeddable so far as we know, so we had to resort to recording off our laptop screen):

4:54 PM: SDOT confirms that crash has cleared.

From today’s media conference call about tunneling and traffic as the Alaskan Way Viaduct closure continues:

TUNNELING PROGRESS: 214 of 385 under-the-Viaduct feet as of late morning. Any prediction of how much longer it will take? “Still too early to start projecting when we’re going to open up The Viaduct,” WSDOT’s Dave Sowers said. They have to get past the closest call under The Viaduct – 15′ beneath “96 East” under Yesler – “before we can even start thinking about that,” Sowers reiterated. Later, asked about the tolerance levels of Viaduct settlement or movement as the tunneling machine continues moving beneath it, he said that’s been “negligible.”

The biggest point of the call was regarding traffic “surprises” this weekend and next week related to special events and seasonal activities:

BUSY WEEKEND AHEAD: Jon Layzer of SDOT wanted to make sure the events coming up this weekend are on everyone’s radar (we mentioned them in this morning’s traffic/transit coverage). “Plan ahead, take alternatives where you can, use (the online info) to plan your trips.” Travis Phelps of WSDOT mentioned lane reductions north of Marysville, and the Mariners‘ homestand that starts next Monday. WSDOT’s Laura Newborn noted a “free parking” promotion on the downtown waterfront this weekend – find out more on the Downtown Seattle Association website.

ALSO NEW THIS WEEKEND – ‘HOMEPORT’ CRUISE SHIPS: We asked if there’s anything going under-reported. One response was from Peter McGraw of the Port of Seattle, pointing out that the first “homeported” cruise ships are here this weekend, which means a lot of additional traffic as thousands of passengers end and start their journeys here, and as trucks arrive and depart to provision the ships. Both Pier 66 downtown and Smith Cove in Magnolia will have ships – here’s the schedule; Pier 66 has a ship on Saturday, Smith Cove has one ship a day on Saturday and Sunday. (The schedule gets even busier in a few weeks.) McGraw says they’re coordinating with the trucking community “to get in early” and also urging departing passengers to add lots of extra time to arrive at the terminal.

We’ll be covering the Friday pm commute starting around 4 pm, with incident-specific coverage if anything of note happens before then.