10 pm Friday night. The moment we’ve all been waiting for (or dreading). Here’s what you need to know right now:

-No access to I-5 Northbound from West Seattle Freeway or surface Spokane Street, all weekend.

-If you get to I-5 some other way, three NB lanes are closed in the construction zone (between West Seattle Freeway and I-90), including the ramp to I-90 and Dearborn.

-Some bus routes are affected (more here).

-Water Taxi capacity is increased (schedule here).

-The Washington State Department of Transportation’s complete project update page is here. (If you want to talk to a real live person, they’ve got a hotline 18 hours a day at 206-440-4704.)

-Our live cameras page is here (with additions to come over the weekend as we see where other cameras are pointing and what they are showing; also note the city has added a new Alaskan Way/Washington cam).

-Don’t forget, tonight is the second and (scheduled to be) final night of Admiral Way paving, with Admiral closed till 6 am tomorrow between Olga and 41st.

Let us know how all this winds up affecting you, once you’ve been out in it tonight, tomorrow, throughout the weekend — leave comments on our I-5 posts, or send us e-mail. Good luck to us all!

Morning commuters won’t be dealing with it till Monday, but the weekend effects will be major — starting at 10 pm, the West Seattle Bridge exit to NB I-5 will close completely for the whole weekend. If your destination off I-5 is the U-District or somewhere further north, try this alternate route: Take The Viaduct; just past the Battery Street Tunnel, follow the Mercer Street/I-5 exit, which is a relatively straight shot (less than a mile) over to the interstate onramps. Meantime, these links should be handy: WSDOT’s “everything you need to know NOW about the closures” page is here; our live WS cams page including The Bridge is here.

You may have read or heard something about a temporary traffic signal going in on the elevated portion of Spokane Street, better known as the last EB stretch of the West Seattle Bridge, formerly the West Seattle Freeway. We have doublechecked with WSDOT, which is working on traffic mitigation with SDOT, and they confirm for us that this is not so — quoting Erin Bogenschutz of WSDOT:

They are not removing any of the concrete barrier to allow eastbound vehicles on the elevated portion of Spokane Street to turn left to 4th Ave.

The City will install a new left turn signal for eastbound traffic on the ground-level of Spokane Street to turn left to 4th Ave. Currently, the signal prohibits left-turns. The new signal should be installed this afternoon.

As the I-5 closures roll ever-closer, the very nice folks in communications @ WSDOT are working overtime to be sure even small news “organizations” like WSB are supplied with every last little bit of info. Among today’s bits: This helpful link including the specifics on exactly which lanes are scheduled to be closed when. That includes a complete lack of access to NB I-5 from the east end of The Bridge this weekend — so don’t even try.

We’ve been warned: Friday night is the start of the three-week project that will close much of northbound I-5, off and on, round the clock, right where West Seattle drivers roll onto 5, between Spokane Street and I-90. A few more planning tidbits today:

-Remember the suggestion from West Seattle’s Most Famous Politician, to work from home or hang out someplace with wi-fi? Coffeehouses aren’t the only places you can get online; for example, Matthew @ Skylark Cafe wants everyone in WSB-land to know Skylark (north end of Delridge, just south of The Bridge) has wi-fi and welcomes telecommuters – open at 11:30 am Tuesdays-Fridays, 9 am Saturdays & Sundays. He adds, “We have air conditioning and happy hour all day til 7pm … we are also family-friendly until 9 pm when we become 21+.”

-Another e-mail suggested we remind everyone that some bus routes will change during the construction too.

… you should see it again. Nine days after a sharp reader helped us bring you first word of the Elliott Bay Water Taxi‘s increased capacity, extra early-AM run, and extra shuttle during the looming Freeway Fright ’07, King County posted another official alert about it today. If you still aren’t completely dialed into the I-5 challenges ahead, here’s the WSDOT lowdown; here’s the city’s plan; here’s our newly enhanced traffic-cams-n-more page (we’ll be adding more including the I-5/Spokane Street cam since that will be the epicenter of the Aug. 10-29 fun).

The very nice folks in communications @ the state Transportation Department have e-mailed us a couple times to see how they can help get all of us in WSB-land through the impending Freeway Fright ’07 — the work on northbound I-5, between the far east end of the WS Bridge and the I-90 exit, slated for August 10-29 (unless more stupid summer rain gets in the way). They want to be 1000% sure you have every last bit of info you need to survive — here’s their “project page” (complete with countdown clock!) and blog-post discussion (did you know WSDOT had a blog?). Our question now: what more do you want/need to know about this work and how it will affect traffic? Whatever your question, they seem willing to offer answers.