One last round of reminders tonight, after an uneventful weekend post-Alaskan Way Viaduct shutdown, with the first 99-less commute hours away:
(Live webcam showing work by south tunnel entrance. See other construction cameras here)
WHAT’S CLOSED: Highway 99, between the West Seattle Bridge and the south end of the Battery Street Tunnel: The Viaduct is closed forever; the Highway 99 tunnel will be open the morning of February 4th if all goes well. Finishing the pre-tunnel exit ramp for NB 99 traffic to downtown (at Dearborn – here’s the explanatory video) is projected to take at least another week after that.
WHAT’S DIFFERENT
–Metro routing. All the routes that used the Alaskan Way Viaduct are using temporary new “pathways” to get downtown. (Here’s the map.)
-The temporary bus lane painted on the eastbound bridge and 4th Avenue is now officially in effect.
-Maritime openings of the low bridge are supposed to be kept to a minimum during morning peak hours and part of the afternoon (7-10 am and 2-5 pm). (Bridge openings are tweeted here.)
FOR WATER TAXI RIDERS
-Two boats on the West Seattle run (Doc Maynard and San Juan Clipper), both with 200+ capacity – here’s the schedule, including Vashon (which is on its regular schedule):
-Doubled free Water Taxi shuttle service (see the schedules here)
-Parking at Pier 2 (Harbor/Florida – here’s a map) with a free shuttle to the dock
-Overnight parking restrictions on Harbor between Fairmount Avenue and Don Armeni Boat Ramp, meant to ensure more street-parking spots for WT riders
-Extra bicycle parking at Seacrest
-Remember the Free Waterfront Shuttle once you get downtown (see the maps here).
THE OTHER SHUTTLE OPTION
-As long as you are traveling either to or from The Junction or Seacrest, and are in the service area, Ride2 might be an option for you. (See the map, times, etc. on the Ride2 website.)
TRAFFIC CONTROL ONCE YOU’RE OFF THE BRIDGE
-The city plans to station uniformed police officers at key locations from SODO to downtown – see the list and maps here. (And note that the city says the plan is subject to change at any time.)
WSB TRAFFIC COVERAGE
-We’ll be starting by 5:30 am and will see how that goes. We’ll have a crew at the Water Taxi dock monitoring the situation there, as well as at the desk here watching/listening to the traffic/transit situation. We’ll also, as we did during the last weekday Viadoom, have running PM coverage for starters. Something to report to us? (Not while you’re at the wheel, of course!) 206-293-6302, text or voice.
-If you have questions or observations, please share those when you can – we’ll be participating in media briefings between the am and pm commutes.
-In addition to the cameras we will feature during ongoing coverage, our 24/7 traffic-cameras page is here.
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