In order to protect the life and property of those who travel on the fragile and decrepit Alaskan Way Viaduct, the structure will close early in the morning of April 29th to allow Bertha to attempt to tunnel 378′ underneath it. The machine will dive under a steel and carbon reinforced structure ($) in the vicinity of Yesler Way, and if all goes well the Viaduct will reopen as the machine approaches Western/Columbia.

For all of Bertha’s many woes, it remains underappreciated that each of its breakdowns have occurred in the best possible places: west of the Viaduct and adjacent to industrial land. With its Viaduct dive and its subsequent attempt to tunnel underneath Downtown, the stakes grow much higher and the cost and complexity of repair much greater.

WSDOT Image. You can follow Bertha's progress live here once tunneling begins.
WSDOT Image. You can follow Bertha’s progress live here once tunneling begins.

But the immediate concern for the 90,000 cars and 30,000 transit riders is successfully getting about the business of their daily lives, and to that end there are a number of reroutes and additional services in place:

  • Metro routes 21E, 37, 55, 56, 57, 120, 125, and RapidRide C will use 4th Ave S and 3rd Avenue northbound and will use 3rd/Yesler/Terrace/Airport Way/Lander/1st when traveling southbound
  • Metro routes 113, 121, 122, and 123 will use Spokane Street and the Sodo Busway northbound and will use 3rd/Yesler/Terrace/Airport Way/Spokane Street southbound
  • The Vashon Water Taxi will add 5 round trips (though at press time their website had not published the schedule)
  • The West Seattle Water Taxi will add 360 extra park and ride spots along Harbor Ave SW, though no extra service will be offered. A free and continuous shuttle will take passengers to Seacrest Park for Water Taxi service.
  • Bus-only lanes will be added on Blanchard and Lenora in Belltown, and SPD will be enforcing bus lanes throughout the Center City
  • Parking will be restricted on 4th Avenue downtown.
  • Unlike previous closures, vehicle access to/from the Battery Street Tunnel will be maintained from the Western Avenue ramps.

Though this is already being dubbed “Viadoom 2” – after the original 9-day Viadoom in 2011 – my suspicion is that these closures will be a bit anticlimactic, painful but not apocalyptic. Friday the 29th will be light as people overreact and avoid Downtown, then volumes will steadily build as the closure progresses. This urbanist’s fondest hope is that we hardly miss the Viaduct and would entertain never reopening it, but that’s likely too much to dream. Good luck out there everyone.

54 Replies to “Viaduct to Close for Two Weeks Beginning April 29th”

  2. The West Seattle/South Seattle bus routes will be passing very close to the SODO light rail station, as of last week, I’m still waiting to hear if Metro will offer a stop there. It’s not currently planned, but I (and others) asked on social media for it to be considered. Metro said they’d discuss it with Sound Transit.

    If the surface streets in SODO get jammed… offering a connection to the congestion-free light rail line could be a nice escape plan for passengers.

    1. Yes, please! There is no good reason for the buses re-routed on 4th Avenue not to stop at 4th & Lander.

      Transferring to Link at SODO would be a major time saver for those heading to Capitol Hill or the UW.

    2. Even better, drop the passengers at SODO Station, and turn the buses back to West Seattle to go pick up another load of passengers…. since we can’t get mitigatory extra runs funded by the state.

      1. That might work, but a forced transfer to Link will only work if the train has enough room to carry everyone. During peak hours, this might mean that ST needs to start running longer trains.

      2. A good chunk of the passengers will hop on whichever bus comes first, if the buses have room.

      3. If some of the West Seattle routes don’t run through downtown, that relieves some of the 3rd Ave bottleneck. Run route 550 upstairs for those two weeks. Remind their riders that the state senators representing them were not helpful with viaduct transit mitigation.

      4. Why isn’t a Link mitigation part of the mix? It would seem like a no-brainer to run three-car or even four-car trains for two weeks and truncate more routes that will be slogging through Downtown.

        I suspect there is some sort of inter-agency cooperation missing here.

      5. ST has the fleet to run 3-car trains all day. It doesn’t have enough cars to run the loop with all 4-car trains.

        We’ve seen that adding 3-car trains randomly, without announcements, is minimally effectual. If the train is to be part of the mitigation, it will need ongoing 3-car trains.

      1. There might not be space there for more buses.

        Alaskan Way might be a good way to get them into downtown if only the BRzt lanes on Madison sbd Alaskan Way existed already.

      2. Marion Street would be too steep for RapdRide C’s articulated buses, Glenn. Seneca Street may have worked but the blocks between Second and Fourth Avenues are also quite steep.

      3. The RapidRide buses wouldn’t be able to do it.

        However, routes like the 57 are already taking Seneca street. They just need dedicated lanes on Alaskan Way to avoid the viaduct segment more effectively.

  3. Here’s to hoping a sinkhole destabilizes that should have been taken down 10 years ago death trap, causing it to never be re-opened. I don’t think the powers that be will ever get serious about envisioning and creating a post-viaduct Seattle until they’re forced to, and better a sinkhole while closed to traffic than an earthquake. (That they’d be forced to by the fallout from the stupidity of their non-solution fantasy tunnel would be a nice ironic twist.)

    1. If the tunnel project fails the state might fall back to a new elevated viaduct. Something larger, more obtrusive, and with less of a view due to current building codes. Then there would go the plans for a quiet waterfront park.

      1. …if you can call a 6-lane freight highway, with lots of adjoining surface parking, a quiet waterfront park.

      2. The viaduct is extremely noisy, so, yes, even a 6-lane surface highway would still be quieter, relatively speaking. If nothing else, the stoplights would mean lower speeds, and lower speeds generally means less noise. There would also be fewer cars, period, as most of the thru-traffic would use I-5 instead.

    2. Zack is awarded the ‘Understatement of the Year’ award for this gem.
      ” With its Viaduct dive and its subsequent attempt to tunnel underneath Downtown, the stakes grow much higher and the cost and complexity of repair much greater.”
      Wait till the grout trucks start showing up at the doorstep of a highrise. Or worse yet, having to shut down the latte vendors for Bertha’s next extraction pit.

      2. I seem to remember that the Viaduct was supposed to come down under human control in 2012. Is my memory off?

        Because my sense of the very likely condition of the viaduct, combined with the even more likely effects of tunneling, is that this would be a good time to finish demolishing it before either plate tectonics or gravity does it for us.

        It’s like moving people back into a condemned house because something that could have taken it down has now gone by. Leaving it to finish collapsing at its own pace.

        And precisely because there’s now no choice about this, we’re at a very good time to start seriously creating the permanent surface transit system the Waterfront area needs. Rather than having viaduct’s remains collapse on top of our restructuring efforts.

        I definitely agree that DSTT and LINK can be adjusted to be a great deal of help. Have long definitely thought that some easy and expense-free dispatching measures could indeed let more routes use the tunnel.

        Though I think DSTT’s best use would be to use above bus-control measures to get tunnel buses out of the way of the trains. Because if all trains can keep their headways, individual trains are less likely to be overloaded.

        As for the 550 passengers and what they tell their representatives, I think the greatest campaign work transit can do to promote ST3 is to prove that all the money over all the years will be going to a system that’s proved it can competently handle an operating a prolonged emergency.

        Mark Dublin

    3. The plans for the post-viaduct Seattle are available at the Waterfront Seattle website and it does not include a 6 six lane freight route. The new Alaska Way will be 4 lanes north of Colman Dock and will have raised crosswalks at every intersection, so a much slower road by design. I read the EIS and the acoustic environment will be much improved just by getting rid of the elevated road – lowering the perceived noise by half. If you have other FACTS I’d love to hear them!

    4. I’m with you – I certainly hope they destabilize the viaduct beyond usability. Tear that thing down now, redo the waterfront, and let STP finish the DBT whenever they get their fricking act together.

      Those clowns seem totally incompetent — we best not wait for them because we might be waiting forever….

    5. That would be ironic. But it would be better than it collapsing on people and killing them. If 2nd were fixed, add a bus lane, modify the cycle track to be less obtrusive and better marked, remove the on street parking. and the same happened on 1st and 4th, along with better connections to highway 99 I don’t see why you couldn’t remove the viaduct without building a replacement. OMG you have to slow down and drive *through* the city instead zipping around of. There’s a concept.

  4. Interesting enough, I haven’t heard about any traffic restrictions on Alaskan Way (the surface street). If the reason for closing the viaduct is concern that the vibrations caused by the TBM might cause the structure to collapse, underneath the viaduct would seem to be just a dangerous a place to be as on the viaduct, itself.

    1. It would be interesting to see what that would do to the ferry traffic, considering where that crosses the whole mess.

    2. I’m assuming/hoping there’s some good rationale for that, like that deforming the driving surface up top is much more probable than bringing huge pieces just falling apart and crashing down to Alaskan way.

    3. AFAIK, taking the traffic off the viaduct makes it easier to monitor for sinkage and other problems. I hope that there still is a plan in place to close off Alaska way if needed.

      1. I seem to remember that the Viaduct was supposed to come down under human control in 2012. Is my memory off?

        Because my sense of the very likely condition of the viaduct, combined with the even more likely effects of tunneling, is that this would be a good time to finish demolishing it before either plate tectonics or gravity does it for us.

        It’s like moving people back into a condemned house because something that could have taken it down has now gone by. Leaving it to finish collapsing at its own pace.

        And precisely because there’s now no choice about this, we’re at a very good time to start seriously creating the permanent surface transit system the Waterfront area needs. Rather than having viaduct’s remains collapse on top of our restructuring efforts.

        I definitely agree that DSTT and LINK can be adjusted to be a great deal of help. Have long definitely thought that some easy and expense-free dispatching measures could indeed let more routes use the tunnel.

        Though I think DSTT’s best use would be to use above bus-control measures to get tunnel buses out of the way of the trains. Because if all trains can keep their headways, individual trains are less likely to be overloaded.

        As for the 550 passengers and what they tell their representatives, I think the greatest campaign work transit can do to promote ST3 is to prove that all the money over all the years will be going to a system that’s proved it can competently handle an operating a prolonged emergency.

        Mark Dublin

      2. Probably would, Nick, but be honest. If your car were in same condition as what’s left of the viaduct, would you bother take it in for its yearly maintenance check? Farrell’s Wrecking Yard doesn’t require it.

        Mark

  5. May we assume that ALL on-street parking will, be prohibited on ALL of 4th Ave S and 3rd Avenue northbound and 3rd/Yesler/Terrace/Airport Way/Lander/1st southbound?
    And certainly First avenue from the 1st South Bridge to about Battery Street?

    1. Well I was hoping that they would provide similar restrictions on a south bound route through downtown. Either 2nd Ave or 5th Ave but it appears that’s not the case?

  6. Can’t wait for my 8 PM 10 minute drive to SODO from QA to become 20-30 minutes via DT or I-5. Well at least I’ll be carpooling like usual, which will of course offer no benefits. Life would be much easier if there was a bus route that terminated somewhere closer to the stadiums than 3rd and Washington, or if there was a HOV lane on I-5. Oh well. I’ll join the rest of the city in the ensuing gridlock!

    1. You could just choose to enjoy the sunshine and walk from SODO to QA. It would probably take around 30 minutes.

      1. Walk from SODO to QA in 30 minutes? It takes 20 minutes to walk from Pine Street to QA. And 10 minutes to walk from Pine Street to Pioneer Square.

      3. Google suggests it would take ~50 minutes to walk from the north side of CenturyLink to the bottom of the counterbalance, about 2.5 miles. I’m guessing they estimate 3mph plus wait time at crosswalks.

      4. Monorail + Link.

        Too bad the monorail only offers a monthly pass rather than a weekly pass.

      5. Google maps says 57 minutes from Queen Anne and Mercer to Safeco field. I expect I could do it in 50, but not much less than that, given stoplights. 30 is jogging.

      6. I’ve walked from Magnolia to Alaskan Way on the Elliott Bay Trail in 45. The sidewalk along Alaskan Way is congested with people but at least there are no crosswalks, except at the ferry and you can get up to the First Ave walkway from there.

  7. I wish there were betting markets for:

    1) Viaduct collapse or other reasons, rendering it unusable.

    2) Completion of Bertha’s grave.

    Profiting off of government stupidity should be an option available to all casual observers!

    Also, WSDOT could hedge their folly.

    1. Once again, WSDOT had no say in the matter. They got their marching orders from a Legislature just wanting to go home and see their families.

    2. You think if WSDOT came to the legislature with “grave concerns” that there is a non-negligible chance that Bertha will eat the Four Seasons, that might have some weight with the politicos?

      I hold WSDOT complicit in their silence.

  8. The City needs to prioritize removing derelict railroad tracks along bus routes, especially since Lander is going to be a major detour as the Viaduct is being replaced. Buses (apparently) have to come to a complete stop over every set of tracks, even if they aren’t connected to anything outside of the roadway.

    1. Not sure what the law is in Washington, but here in Virginia: buses do not have to stop at disused rail crossings that are specifically marked “exempt”

      2. There’s an infamous crossing at Lander and Occidental. The tracks extend about 200 feet north and south of Lander and connect to nothing. People park their cars on it. But no one has deigned to hang an EXEMPT sign at that crossing. So the bus has to stop.

        Failing to stop at that crossing results in an immediate 60-day license suspension. If a bus driver’s license is suspended, they can’t work, and if they can’t work, they get fired. There are no “work exemptions” to the CDL.

        Preference 1: Someone in an official capacity goes around and hangs EXEMPT signs all over Sodo as needed.
        Preference 2: A guerilla strike team hangs EXEMPT signs all over Sodo. This is my second preference as the strike team will possibly hang an EXEMPT sign someplace it’ll get people killed.
        Oh, by the way. wasn’t there supposed to be an overpass on Lander Street to obviate this BS?

  9. Bit of a shame they couldn’t allow buses to use the viaduct during this closure. Might prove an interesting experiment, if safety could be ensured of course – which it evidently can’t.

  10. Yay!

    I’m genuinely excited to see what happens. My prediction is that the first 3 days are a living hell until people change their habits. Then Seattle will resume normal operation and people will wonder, “why did we need the viaduct anyways?”

  11. I know it’s not “politically correct” to say, but I just wish the autoistas would give up and move back to the Midwest. The radial cities on the prairies there are a “natural” for car culture, and the political environment supports their desires and emotional biases perfectly.

    It’s the old question: “Would you rather be right than happy?” They spend so much time whining about “libruls” and “proving” that transit is nothing but a waste of public resources that they are missing life!

    Better than they realize that there is an irreducible fraction of this society which wants a genuine urban experience. It may be 20% or 25% or maybe even 30%. I doubt that much, but it’s certainly not a “rump”. The autoistas have local political control of at least 90% of the land mass of the Lower 48 (and 99.99999% of Alaska!) Why can’t they be satisfied with that and let the “creatives” have cities the way we want them?

    In answer to that somewhat rhetorical question, I’d just have to say, “It’s probably jealousy and envy.” After all, cities have always been sited in the nicest places big enough to hold them. Right? Humanity really hasn’t changed all that much. So Los Angeles has the best climate in North America, hands down. San Francisco has the spectacular San Francisco and San Pablo Bays. New York has Lawnggg Oisland and the best temperate zone port on the East Coast, and Boston, well, who wouldn’t want to live there? Even with the nasty winters.

    Now there are those Midwest “radial” cities, some of which just seem to have grown up because they were in the geographical center of their state and not because of any topographical advantage. That’s true of Columbus, Indianapolis, Nashville, Springfield, Des Moines, Jefferson City, Oklahoma City, Little Rock and even Austin. And then there’s Atlanta which has to have the worst topography of any inhabited place in the State of Georgia!

    But it had four railroads even before the Civil War, so it was like a giant magnet for commerce in the region.

    The point of this rambling is that there are cities which aren’t really “Cities” in the urban sense; they’re suburbs of governmental functionaries, even in Red States. So they don’t have the attractive power that the great coastal Cities do for people with brains and an entrepreneurial bent. And, for you Wingnuts who happen to be reading this, “No, buying a Pizza Hut franchise is not ‘entrepreneurial’.” It might be a desire to get ahead in the world or it just might be nothing more than indication of a desire to order people around.

  12. my suspicion is that these closures will be a bit anticlimactic

    It will be interesting to see who adjusts to the respective downtown tangles faster: Portland or Seattle.

    1. My bet is that system that wins the adjustment contest will be the one that gets started on the project first. So to get ourselves “off the mark”….My guess is that the Governor could declare remaining structure a menace and both shut and tear it down on his own authority.

      Also think that if the Mayor demanded that he do so flanked by the Fire Chief, and also the Prosecuting Attorney and some more lawyers, at least Jay wouldn’t stop Ed from throwing the blasting switch himself.

      And leaving us with no choice but to get to work immediately on the transit changes we’re going to have to deal with immediately+ however much time ’till the thing disintegrates. Leaving us with skills and practice that’ll let us beat Portland in a walk.

      Mark Dublin

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