It probably won’t be as bad as the weekend of the 22nd, where the Rock’n’Roll marathon closed much of downtown Seattle, but this weekend promises to be another mess. Three construction projects will close major roadways in the city, disrupting traffic and surface transit alike; a couple of smaller events in the city and region will also impact transit. Mike Lindblom’s Times piece has the details on the construction, but here’s the transit highlights:
- Aurora Ave closed at 85th St, to rebuild the intersection. Route 358 will obviously be affected by this,
but Metro has not posted the detour information yet (they say they are working on it)and see the comments for a link to the detour information. The official car detour is Holman or I-5, but I suspect lots of drivers will try to use Greenwood, impacting Route 5. - Mercer I-5 ramps closed as part of the seemingly-interminable Mercer Corridor Project. As Lindblom notes, weekend Mercer ramp closures typically turn Denny into a parking lot, making the weekend Route 8 as hopelessly slow and unreliable as on the weekday. This also tends to impact southbound Dexter (and therefore Routes 28/23 and 26/124) as cars back up trying to get onto Denny. In addition, the 70 and 7x (local) routes will be rerouted from Fairview to Eastlake (Saturday daytime 7x expresses will not be rerouted).
- Another Mercer switcheroo takes effect on Route 17: currently, northbound route 17 detours from Westlake onto 9th Ave near Mercer; that detour will be reversed through the end of September, with southbound 17 detouring from 9th to Westlake, and the northbound resuming its regular alignment.
- Routes 16 and 44 will be detoured up to 50th street at various times of day on Saturday due to the Wallingford Kid’s Parade.
- A bunch of routes serving Renton will be detoured on Sunday due to the Renton Car Show.
- Spokane St widening: As far as I can tell, the Spokane St Viaduct project work won’t be directly disruptive to transit, but wait for Metro to update the Alert Center to confirm this.
- Northbound SODO busway closure continues until the 16th.
As always, plan ahead, check the Alert Center, and expect delays. I’ll update this post once Metro tells me they’ve fully updated the Alert Center.
UPDATE: Metro has updated the Alert Center.
I think you mean 26/124 and 28/23.
This sounds like a good weekend to ride a bike or be out of town.
Thanks!
The 358 reroute is finally posted (http://metro.kingcounty.gov/up/rr/12-358-xx_auroraavnclsdatn85st_july6-9.pdf)
Basically, they’re sending them on Winona Ave N/Green Lake Dr N, Wallingford Ave N, N 90th St, and back to Aurora (and vice-versa.) With nice weather in the forecast, it’s going to be interesting to see how crazy things get at the intersection of Wallingford and Green Lake Way.
Thanks for the word on the Route 17. Westlake and Harrison is favorite stop of mine. Several favorite espresso places within a few blocks, and some good street food during lunch hour.
Will often use the streetcar for the South Lake Union leg of the trip both directions. Looking forward to extending the streetcar all the way to Ballard for the whole trip.
Mark Dublin
As much as I hate Aurora in general as a huge/wasteful arterial, this weekend is going to bring the apocalypse to my neighbourhood. Oi….
Joe Biden (vice president) comes to town on Monday. Expect delays there.
Is Biden arriving by train?
Nope. The email I got said he’ll be using Boeing field.
Light rail, take me away!
Anyone have an idea why the left turn from Green Lake Way to 50th was closed at about six o’clock on Saturday? That would have nothing to do with the kiddie parade, which was hours before. There were cops directing traffic at that very strange intersection and letting the eastbound traffic on Green Lake Way continue through two light cycles while letting the southbound traffic on Green Lake Way (car or bike) back up.
That was to handle the very high volume of traffic exiting Aurora at Green Lake Way in order to get around the closure at 85th.