The South Park bridge, south of Seattle, is closing for good. It is seismically unstable and at least for now, there is no money to replace it. While some may argue that the bridge doesn’t serve much of the population, it is a critical link for the South Park community and freight traffic in the [...]
From The News Tribune: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/06/28/1245328/bridge-goof-mishandled-dot-chief.html A comedy of errors led to the mistake that resulted in the Eastbound Sprague Avenue off ramp being constructed improperly. WSDOT then failed to notify the public in a timely manner about the error. Mistakes do happen, especially with all the issues surrounding this design change. Murphy’s Law is always [...]
From WSDOT: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/News/2010/06/28_electrichighway.htm This project will add electric vehicle charging stations along Interstate 5 North of Everett and South of Olympia. These stations will support the coming generation of plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles. This is a great public-private partnership. One of the issues adopting new technologies is that the infrastructure doesn’t exist to support [...]
From WSDOT: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/News/2010/06/29-awvgroundbreaking.htm This project will replace the Southern end of the viaduct with an at-grade road. This road will then connect to the tunnel, or any other proposed replacement of the rest of the viaduct. More: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/SR99/HolgateToKing Ben
From The Seattle Times: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/bumpertobumper/2012224397_bumper28m.html The Seattle Times’ “Bumper to Bumper” blog discusses the plans in case the viaduct has to be closed, for example, due to earthquake damage. The primary plan is to route all traffic downtown via Second and Fourth avenue. WSDOT is also adding emergency closure gates to the viaduct. Lets hope [...]
From The News Tribune: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/06/26/1242758/engineering-mistake-costs-890000.html This is not good news. This offramp feeds Sprague Avenue from Eastbound SR 16 and will now have to be rebuilt. While mistakes are made, this should have been caught earlier. Ben
From KIRO-TV: http://www.kirotv.com/news/24037168/detail.html To deal with the state’s mounting debt, Governor Gregoire has proposed privatizing the state ferry system. While this could potentially be a good idea, given issues that have arisen within the system lately, in general private industry has a hard time providing infrastructure at affordable rates. And keep in mind, the ferries [...]
From WSDOT: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/News/2010/06/25_SR520NewLane.htm A new Westbound lane from SR 202 to Lake Samamish Parkway has opened today. This lane includes a new offramp to Lake Samamish Parkway. The new lane should help merging issues in the area. Ben
From The Seattle Times: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/bellevueblog/ 2012201087_soundtransitstudyingshorterdowntownlightrailtunnel.html http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012201905_lightrail25m.html East Link may run in a short tunnel in downtown Bellevue. This tunnel would eliminate conflicts with roads downtown while also fitting with the budget, versus a longer tunnel option discussed previously. While more expensive than an at-grade option, keeping the trains seperated in a major downtown area [...]
From The Seattle P-I: http://blog.seattlepi.com/transportation/archives/212395.asp It is expected up to 16% of users will take public transportation across the 520 bridge once tolling starts in 2011. This should definitely help traffic on the bridge and in the area, plus introduce more people to the transit systems here. Ben