One more reminder – the 1st Avenue South Bridge, northbound only, is scheduled to be closed today, 7 am-3 pm. Here’s the original announcement. We’ll publish an update if we get word of an earlier reopening.

Just take this as a general alert about The Bridge, and everywhere else – there have been multiple crashes so far today and another one is working right now – Scott C sent first word; it’s parallel with Nucor, on the eastbound side. Hard to tell how bad and how long till it’s cleared, but we’re heading over to have a look. 3:57 PM UPDATE: Scott C says in comments that it’s affecting westbound traffic too. 4:52 PM UPDATE: We looked at that spot on the bridge, and the Fauntleroy entrance, and neither appears impeded, so it appears this has cleared.

Several people have reported that the West Marginal Way SW/Highland Park Way SW intersection is closed this morning. The new Seattle City Light outage-tracker map indicates a 4-customer outage in that area, attributed to “car vs. pole,” and one WSB Forums member reports power problems in the middle of the night (we noted a flicker via Twitter around 2 am, but the outage tracker didn’t show anything immediately afterward). We’re on our way to check out the scene. 11:25 AM: HP Way is blocked off at the bottom of the hill and City Light trucks are in action about a block uphill. 12:56 PM: We went by a short time ago, still closed, City Light still at work. Photo added. 3:42 PM: Though we went back around 2, only to see the road still closed, the City Light tracker has since cleared the outage. Don’t know for sure if that means the road has reopened too – but we’ll go back again to check when we can, if we don’t get confirmation sooner. Meantime, via Facebook, Brian says he was one of the first on the scene of the crash that caused this, around 1:42 am.

Just in from SDOT, a general traffic alert about President Obama‘s impending Seattle visit – he’s campaigning for local Democrats tomorrow, but arriving tonight:

Seattleites should be prepared today and tomorrow for occasional street closures or traffic slowdowns as President Obama arrives at a local airport, travels to various events, and departs on Thursday. Little information on the routes and times of his movements are announced for security reasons.

The President arrives tonight, so travelers can expect a possibility of rolling closures on the freeway or major arterials leading from a local airport. There will be street closures to provide security near the Westin Hotel tonight and tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning there will likely be closures on local streets as the president attends an event at a private residence, and then attends an event at 11 a.m. at the Edmundson Pavilion on Montlake Boulevard NE next to Husky Stadium.

Rolling closures are again likely on the freeway or major arterials as the President travels to an airport when leaving the city after the event at the Edmundson Pavilion.

The aforementioned “local airport” is usually Boeing Field, just east of West Seattle. President Obama, you will probably recall, last visited just two months ago (a day that’ll be long remembered, particularly for The Sonic Booms).

Just announced by the city – as of Monday, some of its “dynamic messaging signs” around the city, including Fauntleroy/38th and 35th/Snoqualmie, will show travel times, like the ones you’ve probably noticed on freeways like I-5 for a while now. Here’s the official announcement. SDOT says the sign on Admiral Way will have travel times by the end of the month, and by next March, they’ll be on three Highway 99 signs as well as East Marginal Way. Starting Monday they’re promising expanded info online, too.

ORIGINAL 6:35 PM NOTE: Separate from the fire incident that’s wrapping up downhill, police are handling a problem with a truck that’s blocked off 22nd SW before the downhill curves – and the tow truck won’t arrive for an hour or so. They’re putting up closure signs at 20th SW/Holden and 21st SW/Webster.

ADDED 10:33 PM: Jon shared photos (one is added, above) “of the truck that was stuck down the street from my house. He had a load of sheetrock for Home Depot. The tow truck was able to pull the end of the trailer back so he could get down the hill. Somehow we need to get the city to put signs up at 16th and Holden so they don’t do this. This isn’t the first one in my 14 years here.”

Second Saturday in a row with a crash on The Bridge right about this time of the afternoon. Police are currently diverting people who are trying to get to the high-rise West Seattle Bridge from 35th/Fauntleroy, pointing them down Avalon, because of a crash (possibly two multiple-car crashes). In this case, though, it appears the Avalon/Admiral and Delridge entrances ARE open. Does not appear anyone was seriously injured, according to the scanner. They’re trying right now to figure out how to get tow trucks to the scene, since multiple vehicles are involved, so it’s not clear how long the 35th/Fauntleroy entrance will be closed. 2:08 PM UPDATE: According to the scanner, they’re now reopening the 35th/Fauntleroy entrance, after the crashed cars were cleared away.

For the next two days – take note! From SDOT:

Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) crews will close the West Seattle Bridge westbound left curb lane from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. on Wednesday and Thursday, October 6 and 7. The closure will enable the Seattle Department of Information Technology to run fiber cable across the bridge. The sidewalks will remain open.

SDOT crews will also close lanes on the Admiral Way Bridge – the westbound right curb lane and the eastbound right curb lane – on Thursday, October 7 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sidewalks will remain open. The lane closures will enable engineers to conduct an annual bridge inspection.

(And if you missed the announcement a few days ago – reminder that WSDOT will close the Alaskan Way Viaduct for its semiannual inspection on October 16-17 … 6 am-6 pm each of those days.)

Though a West Seattle Bridge crash is already “closed” on the 911 log – meaning fire/medic units have cleared – we’ve gotten several messages indicating it’s still causing a backup. According to two people on Twitter (thanks, @cdawg2610 and @nicholasseattle), it’s a westbound truck that got stuck atop the cement barricade, which then was pushed partway into the eastbound lanes, blocking one of them. This is reported to be near the 35th/Fauntleroy end of The Bridge – and the view from the Fauntleroy cam right now does look fairly jammed. 7:55 AM UPDATE: From the middle of the jam, @alexpietsch tweets that eastbound Fauntleroy is “backed up well past Oregon right now.” Adding the Fauntleroy cam “live” image here. 8:27 AM UPDATE: Alex sent a photo just before going by the stuck truck, which as you can see is definitely close to the Fauntleroy end (so if you get on The Bridge from Admiral or Delridge, it’s not an issue):

(He clarifies, that’s the tow truck you see in his photo, not the stuck truck itself.) 8:38 AM: Just got the e-mail rider alert from Metro that the 21, 22, 54 and 55 are “experiencing delays” because of this. 8:56 AM UPDATE: As the top image shows, it’s cleared up now – Jodi also confirmed that via Facebook. She also had this early view of the actual (then-)stuck truck:

ADDED 3:53 PM: Devin shared a better view of what caused the backup:

(Photo by Christopher Boffoli)
ORIGINAL 9:19 PM REPORT: Police are closing the West Seattle Bridge westbound right now at the scene of a one-car rollover, according to initial scanner reports. Via e-mail, Debra, who just drove past, says the rolled vehicle looked like an SUV: “Debris was strewn far … ended up on wheels.” No word yet on injuries – some of the initial responding units have been canceled – but again, the (high-rise) bridge is closed westbound right now.

9:30 PM UPDATE: Medics on the scanner have reported a 25-to-30-year-old woman with a suspected head injury, being rushed to Harborview Medical Center right now via Medic 10. Though the final determination will be up to Seattle Police investigators, the medic discussion included a description of the crash as “high-speed.”

9:49 PM UPDATE: Police have called for help to impound the wrecked car and also for an SDOT crew to come cleanup what was described as a 10′ x 10′ spill at the scene. As Diane points out on Facebook, the westbound side is actually open till everyone heading that way is detoured off onto the Admiral offramp. Via Twitter, Brad notes that the Mariners’ game just got out, which means more drivers heading this way.

10:22 PM UPDATE: Per the scanner, the bridge is now open again. Adding a photo atop the story, taken by Christopher Boffoli. He says the vehicle appears to be a Mercedes SUV. No word on the victim’s condition – according to one witness, it appears she was the driver.

Thanks to Jennifer and Heather for the tip – a crash has closed the Admiral exit from the westbound West Seattle Bridge. Jennifer reports seeing one person on a stretcher and says it appears to be a one-car crash. No word how long it’ll be closed. 8:44 PM UPDATE: Eryka sent an eyewitness report:

My husband and I were right in front of the car that crashed. We didn’t actually see the crash but we heard a loud crash behind us and thought at first it was a loose grate in the road. But as we looked back for the grate we would have driven over we saw that a silver car had crashed head on into the triangular barrier that separates the bridge from the Admiral exit. Two cars that must have been behind the car stopped and were already climbing out of their cars by the time we had looked back and it was impossible for us to stop and help.

We’ll be checking with police to see if we can find out more.

Thanks to Julie for the tip (which we just verified with a late-night drive) that 16th SW is now fully open again, after two months of a northbound detour for the latest round of road-rebuilding work. The original projected completion date was September 27th, and SDOT had reconfirmed for us this past week that they expected to be done “by the end of the month” – but it’s all open again now, a bit ahead of schedule. (We’ll check with SDOT Monday to see if there are still any final touches ahead.)

Thanks to Brian Presser of TouchTech Systems in The Junction for sending along that photo of the crew that’s working on the crosswalk at California/Oregon right now. That’s not the only new paint you’ll see along local roads – we also got a weekend tip from WSB’er “Jack Loblaw” that the West Seattle Bridge was getting some stripe-painting attention too. Typical for this time of year, as crews try to get work like this done before the weather turns for the worse.

Traffic in both directions on Admiral Way will be impacted tomorrow, according to this SDOT notice:

Lane Closures on Admiral Way Bridge Wednesday
Wednesday, September 1, the Seattle Department of Transportation will close lanes on the Admiral Way Bridge between Walnut Avenue SW and 39th Avenue SW while they inspect and make drain repairs on the structure. The work will take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The right lane eastbound will be closed first, then the westbound right lane will be closed. There will be no impact to the bridge sidewalks.

ORIGINAL 5:20 PM REPORT: Police and fire are heading to a reported crash involving a Metro bus and SUV at Delridge and Myrtle (just north of the Home Depot/Arco/Shell intersection). No word yet if anyone is hurt, but given the location and the fact it’s evening commute time, we’re posting this as a heads-up. 5:30 PM UPDATE: 2 more fire units are being sent – seven people are reported to have minor injuries. Per the scanner, police are closing northbound Delridge at Orchard.

(Photo added 6:27 pm, originally posted to our Twitter account @westseattleblog)
5:55 PM UPDATE: We are here, road just reopened both ways. Will add photo shortly. SUV was towed; bus drove a short way north and is still in outside SB lane with a supervisor vehicle in front of it. (And yes, that was a TV chopper over the scene for a while – channel 7.)