As first noted here back on Friday, southbound Highway 99 will close this coming weekend for more work in advance of the viaduct-to-tunnel transition. WSDOT just sent this reminder:

The State Route 99/Alaskan Way Viaduct through Seattle is scheduled to close this weekend at 9 p.m. Friday, Nov. 16 and reopen by 5 a.m. Monday, Nov. 19. Northbound SR 99 will remain open.

Southbound SR 99 will close between the south end of the Battery Street Tunnel and South Spokane Street to allow crews working for the Washington State Department of Transportation to finish paving work near South Atlantic Street. The work must occur before crews can open the new SR 99 tunnel in early 2019.

The paving work requires good weather and will be rescheduled if heavy rain is expected.

This gives us the opportunity to note that the permanent closure of the Alaskan Way Viaduct is now less than two months away – January 11th, as announced two months ago. WSDOT says it’ll then need about three weeks to “realign 99” before the tunnel can open; the exact opening date isn’t set yet, but WSDOT did announce recently that a pre-opening weekend of viaduct goodbyes and tunnel hellos is set for February 2-3. (By the way, we did verify with the King County Water Taxi that it will NOT be offering weekend service for that event – it’s doubling up during the shutdown, but as with the standard winter service, weekday commuter periods only.)

P.S. If you still have questions about getting around post-viaduct, be at next Monday’s Junction Neighborhood Organization meeting (6:30 pm November 19th, Senior Center/Sisson Building, 4217 SW Oregon) – city/county/state reps are on the agenda to talk about it.