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.
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