Bus tunnel closure stalls rush-hour traffic

It's a headache for some commuters and little more than a passing thought to others, but the closure of the Downtown Seattle Transit Tunnel is having a negative impact on rush-hour traffic.

Before it was closed last Saturday, the tunnel was used by 21 metro routes, including several that serve the U-District. All tunnel routes have been pushed onto Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth Avenues, but no bus routes will be cut or shortened during construction, said Metro Transit spokesperson Linda Thielke. However, she added, 70 routes are now being shuffled between the three downtown streets.

A few U-District commuters said a more congested downtown hasn't had much of an effect on them, but others are feeling frustration from the closure.

"I take the bus to work," said Chris Geitz, a UW Medical Center employee and UW graduate as he waited for a bus along Campus Parkway yesterday afternoon. "It adds a lot to my day."

Geitz said the move to the streets adds about 15 minutes each way on the ride to and from his home in Kent, which used to take about an hour and 15 minutes. He said the change also adds some uncertainty to downtown transfers, like the one he feared he wouldn't catch as he waited for his bus.

Theilke said that while there have been some reports of buses arriving up to 30 minutes late, for the most part buses have been able to stay on schedule.

With most of the tunnel traffic routed along Third Avenue, the street has for the most part been cleared of all other traffic -- except bicycles -- during weekday rush hours. Cars are only allowed one block of travel on the street between 6 and 9 a.m. and 3 and 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and then must make a right turn. The King County Sheriff's Department's transit police has car and bicycle patrols set up on the street to catch violators.

That street was chosen because it would minimize the extra traffic's impact on the downtown grid, city officials said.

"Third [Avenue] was never that much of a main thoroughfare, at least not for cars," said Rankin.

Even though the restrictions have been in place for more than two weeks, more than a few renegade cars could be seen driving along the restricted Third Avenue yesterday afternoon.

Downtown commuter Seth Brolite saw the changes as a minor annoyance, with his bus stop moved two blocks south and slightly more congested downtown streets.

"It's a lot harder for the buses to get out of town, of course," he said.

Still, the transit reworkings seemed to be "going fairly smoothly" considering the scale of the project, he said.

While the tunnel is closed, King County Metro and Sound Transit will replace its rail tracks for the downtown segment of Sound Transit's future lightrail line. The tunnel is scheduled to reopen by September 2007, and lightrail trains should start running in the tunnel by 2009.

Metro, Sound Transit, Community Transit and the Seattle Department of Transportation are splitting the $16 million cost of reworking downtown streets to handle the added bus traffic, according to a King County press release.

"We actually had to make some significant street improvements," said SDOT spokesperson Liz Rankin.

She said the changes to downtown streets include the Third Avenue restrictions, a change in the timing of downtown traffic signals, and new traffic signals near the south end of the affected area.

"It's been going well -- it's not perfect, but we didn't expect perfect," said Thielke.