You may have seen the illuminated signs announcing lane closures on the Ballard Bridge and Aurora on Saturday. The Seattle Department of Transportation has canceled the work because of an unfavorable weather forecast.

Night work on the SDOT’s Mercer Corridor Project is scheduled to begin tonight. From SDOT:

Nighttime work for Seattle Department of Transportation’s Mercer Street project will begin as early as March 3 and will continue for approximately two weeks. Up to three lanes of Mercer Street will be closed overnight at Ninth Avenue North. This closure is required for the installation of underground utilities. Night work hours will be from approximately 7 p.m. to 5 a.m.

For more project information, please see SDOT’s project Web site.

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) announced this afternoon that the lane closures on the Ballard Bridge planned for this Saturday, February 12, have been canceled “due to an unfavorable weather forecast.” Crews have tentatively planned to resume the scheduled bridge maintenance on Saturday, February 26.

The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) has closed down the right southbound lane of Elliott Ave W at W Thomas Street from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today, Friday, December 17. From SDOT:

Qwest will be splicing a fiber optic cable and the lane closure is needed for safety.

Engineers with the Seattle Department of Transportation will be inspecting the Ballard Bridge on Thursday. This means the right-hand, southbound lane of the bridge will be closed from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The sidewalk will remain open.

Beginning yesterday, Thursday, September 16, the city began lane closures and tree removal in conjunction with the Mercer Corridor project, which we reported on a few weeks ago. Much of the work is taking place along key corridors going to and from Queen Anne, so keep this in mind when planning your morning commute over the next few weeks. From SDOT:

Intermittent lane closures will occur on Fairview Avenue North and will continue for approximately two weeks. The curb lanes on both sides of the street will be closed at two locations. One location is just north of Valley Street between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. The other location is between Harrison and Republican streets, from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. for the northbound lane, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for the southbound lane. At least one lane on Fairview will remain open in each direction. There will also be temporary sidewalk closures and pedestrian detours.

The lane closures are necessary for the installation of Metro transit poles. King County Metro expects to move the existing overhead trolley lines to the new poles in October to accommodate construction.

Crews also began removing previously-marked trees along Westlake Avenue N, 9th Ave N and Broad Street. These particular trees are being removed temporarily due to their proximity to the Mercer Corridor project work area and will be replaced after construction is completed.

The final design of the east phase of the Mercer Corridor Project includes planting two new trees for every one removed, in accordance with City of Seattle standards, as well as planting more than 10,000 new shrubs and other plants throughout the project area.

For more information, please visit the Mercer Corridor project website.

WSDOT’s work on the Aurora Bridge continues and drivers who plan on crossing it this Sunday could face closures, this time going both ways.

This Sunday crews will continue work to remove and replace more than 1000 rivets and bolts for the construction of a safety fence to deter suicides. Drivers can expect additional closures for rivet removal in September. Crews are working Sundays because rivet busting is too noisy to do at night. Nearby residents can expect to hear construction noise from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.

• From 6 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 29, crews working for WSDOT will close two of three northbound lanes to remove and replace rivets on the east side of the bridge.
• From 1:30 p.m. to 1:45 p.m. all six lanes on the bridge and the southbound Fremont Way on-ramp will be closed while crews move construction equipment to the west side of the bridge. WSDOT scheduled this brief full closure at 1:30 p.m. to help southbound traffic heading to Sunday’s Mariners’ game.
• At 1:45 p.m. crews will reopen all northbound lanes and one southbound lane.
• Two southbound lanes and the southbound Fremont Way on-ramp will remain closed until midnight while crews work on the west side of the bridge.

If that’s not confusing enough, WSDOT has these suggestions on what to do to avoid closures and delays:

• Taking southbound SR 99 across the bridge before 1:30 p.m. Another option is using southbound SR 99 after 7:30 p.m., when delays caused by the closure will be very short.
• Taking northbound SR 99 across the bridge after 2:30 p.m. Drivers also should consider using northbound SR 99 in the morning before traffic volumes increase.
• Checking traffic conditions before hitting the roads. Check SR 99 traffic and I-5 traffic and tune into to radio traffic reports.

For the second Sunday in a row, the Washington State Department of Transportation crews will be closing lanes on the Aurora Bridge this weekend while crews work on the ‘rivet buster’ suicide fence. Commuters planning a trip downtown on Sunday should plan for delays or take an alternate route.

Photo from WSDOT’s Flickr page.

Crews will be working on the east side of the bridge, closing down two northbound lanes.

Access to northbound SR 99 from Halladay near Canlis will be open. Lane closures will be from 6 a.m. to midnight again, with the noisy work beginning as early as 7 p.m. and continuing until 11 p.m. Since they will be on the east side of the bridge, the sound will likely travel further into Lake Union this time.

WSDOT has been posting some pretty incredible photos of the work, which will continue through September 5, on its Flickr page. Check those out here.

The lane closure on the Ballard Bridge, which has been impacting traffic this week, will continue  into next week.

Photo courtesy the Seattle Department of Transportation

Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) crews have been installing brackets for light poles on the bridge. Marybeth Turner with SDOT tells us the work will continue on Friday and Monday. The curb lane in the northbound direction has closed each morning until 2 p.m.

“Four light poles are being replaced as a temporary measure until next year when all of the lighting on the bridge will be replaced,” Turner writes in a press release. “When SDOT has completed this preparatory work, Seattle City Light crews will install the four replacement poles.”