SEATTLE – Navigating congested downtown Seattle streets is no easy task. And it’s likely to get a lot worse as the city’s bus tunnel closes this week for two years of construction to make way for light rail.
The 1.3-mile tunnel will close Saturday so workers can begin retrofitting it for use by both buses and light rail. It will reopen in September 2007, with light rail beginning in 2009.
Sound Transit is paying for the $26 million project as part of its $2.6 billion plan for a 16-mile light rail line from downtown Seattle to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
To accommodate the project, some streets have been reconfigured and new bus stops and shelters have been added to streets using an additional $16 million from Sound Transit, Metro, Community Transit and the Seattle Department of Transportation.
While construction is under way, the downtown routes of more than 70 Metro and Sound Transit buses will be changed, affecting an estimated 100,000 weekday riders. The routes will be transferred to Second, Third, Fourth and Fifth avenues – north-south downtown streets already congested with motorists, delivery trucks and cabs.
Much of the bus traffic will be funneled onto Third Avenue, which will have an increase in bus volume of as much as 60 percent.
To accommodate the added traffic, motorists will be restricted from driving more than one block along Third during peak commuting hours: 6 to 9 a.m. and 3 to 7 p.m. Signs already have been posted to direct drivers off the street, and Seattle police will begin ticketing violators on Monday.
To help bus passengers, transit employees this week and next will be at dozens of locations in the tunnel and at downtown bus stops to direct commuters.
Metro officials expect some initial confusion because the closure affects mostly weekday commuters, but they won’t know how chaotic it will be until it starts.
So far, there have been few complaints.
“I think the bus riders are pretty savvy,” King County Metro spokeswoman Linda Thielke said Thursday, noting that commuters deal with seasonal service changes every February, June and September. “Now we’re concentrating on helping people realize their route may be affected even if their route’s not in the tunnel.”
Some routes that don’t use the tunnel have been reorganized so passengers can wait at one location for multiple routes going to the same or similar destinations. Meanwhile, some buses won’t stop as frequently, allowing for quicker travel times through downtown.
Opponents say light rail does not address the region’s need to get people out of their cars. Sound Transit’s plan for the tunnel jeopardizes a bus system that is successful but is not being used to its full potential, said Maggie Fimia of the Coalition for Effective Transportation Alternatives.
“We’ve got this bus-rapid transit system two-thirds built, and what we’re doing is starting all over,” she said.
Fimia also worries that buses will stay on downtown streets once they have to contend with light rail trains in the tunnel, permanently adding to congestion.
Many retailers in the area remain optimistic about the project, said Anita Woo, a spokeswoman for the Downtown Seattle Association, which represents 420 businesses.
“They’re actually thinking they may have better business with all these people on the surface,” Woo said.
At Payless ShoeSource on Third Avenue, manager Tina White was undecided about the project. She hopes more people will pop in while waiting at the new bus stop up the block, but she was concerned that fewer drivers would spot the store.
“I’m hoping that business picks up with foot traffic. The only problem is I don’t like that everything is closed off to the cars,” White said.
The bus tunnel, built in the 1980s, was designed to allow for rail operations. There already are tracks in the tunnel, but they’re 15 years old and don’t accommodate the level-boarding trains that Sound Transit plans to use.
By lowering the track bed about 6 inches, passengers can board rail cars and low-floor buses directly from the platform without using stairs, said Geoff Patrick, a Sound Transit spokesman.
During construction, electrical, communications, ventilation and fire-safety systems in the tunnel will be updated.
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