It isn’t Everett’s prettiest drive. It isn’t Everett’s easiest drive. It isn’t even the most logical way for me to go when I exit northbound I-5 to get home, or when I head south.
It’s Broadway, and it happens to be the way I do go — mostly out of habit.
Whether on I-5 heading home to north Everett or going to Seattle or anyplace south, I find myself daily in stop-and-go Broadway traffic. Sometimes I need to stop at the Broadway QFC. Other times I just want to see what’s up as I drive past Xfinity Arena.
Driving Broadway has been my habit since 1978, when I first came to The Herald’s former home near the Everett waterfront for an internship interview. The news editor at the time gave me easy directions from Seattle’s U District, which had me heading straight off the freeway onto Broadway.
Soon, I’ll have to break that Broadway habit, which has been 36 years in the making.
We’re about two weeks away from the closure of a section of Broadway — between Hewitt Avenue and California Street — for a yearlong project to replace the 102-year-old bridge over the BNSF Railway tracks.
Northbound and southbound detour routes have been planned by the city, both on streets east of Broadway. With about 40,000 vehicles now using the bridge daily, it may be best to avoid the area entirely.
Last year, the city imposed an 11-ton weight limit for vehicles on the Broadway Bridge, and parking hasn’t been allowed on the shoulder for years. Soon, the bridge will be demolished. When the $13.6 million project is done, about a year from now, the new, wider bridge will have no weight limits.
The Herald reported in late December that the bridge would be closed to traffic by mid-January. On Thursday, though, city of Everett spokeswoman Meghan Pembroke said Feb. 2 is the earliest date for the closure. Some of the work related to the detour route depends on weather, she said. It includes signal modification and striping on the streets.
When I first saw the detour map, I wondered why both northbound and southbound traffic would be sent east of Broadway.
Drivers headed north on Broadway will go east on Hewitt, head north on Cedar Street, then west on Everett Avenue to rejoin Broadway. Those going south will make a left turn so they can drive east on California Street, south on Virginia Avenue and west on Hewitt, then back to Broadway.
Why not send southbound drivers west of Broadway?
“We’re trying to keep additional traffic out of the downtown core because there’s a lot more pedestrian traffic, and the signals are affected by pedestrian traffic,” Pembroke said. Also, the detours are meant to avoid overloading the area near Xfinity Arena, especially during popular events.
While I’m plotting alternate north-south routes to help break my Broadway habit — Rucker and Colby avenues, even West Marine View Drive — business owners near the Broadway Bridge hope their customers won’t avoid the area entirely during the closure.
“People are asking about it,” said Todd Janner, store manager and owner of Siskun Power Equipment. “We’ve had a number of people say, ‘We’ll still get here,’ and we’re counting on them,” he said.
The business, which sells chain saws, blowers, hedge trimmers and generators, has been at 2805 Broadway for about 20 years, and before that was on Everett Avenue. Janner’s parking lot entrance is on California. “With the southbound detour, they’ll turn right in front of us,” he said.
He worries that drive-by business will be hurt by the closure, but said because the store offers parts and service “we’re a little bit of a destination.”
Once bridge work begins, at least he will have an up-close view. “I’ll have my cellphone ready,” Janner said.
He has talked with construction crews and now understands some of the challenges of the job. “During the demolition, everything that falls on the tracks has to be cleaned off,” he said.
At Martin Lumber &Hardware, another longtime business on Broadway, owner-manager Dan Coleman is also concerned about the closure.
“It’s a double headache,” said Coleman, who has been at lumber store at 2730 Broadway for 30-plus years. An inconvenience for customers, the closure may be tougher for semi-trailer trucks that deliver merchandise, he said.
“I don’t know how much we can prepare. We’re just hoping they’ll find us and stick with us,” Coleman said of his customers, both contractors and do-it-yourself clients.
Back in 2005, when the northbound exit onto Broadway was switched from the left to right lane of I-5, a state transportation official asked where I lived. My house is in Everett, about a mile north of downtown. She suggested I switch from exit 192 at Broadway to exit 195 onto East Marine View Drive.
I’ve tried it. I just don’t like it much. There’s more to see on Broadway.
Denial won’t help, but it’s good for a couple more weeks.
“Every time they postpone it, I just keep thinking maybe they’ll postpone it forever,” Coleman said.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.
Broadway details
A city of Everett Web page with details on the Broadway Bridge replacement project, with a map and links to live camera views of the bridge and detour routes, is at: www.everettwa.org/default.aspx?ID=2080
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
