This article should be title: "Whi it's time to get rid of, finally, Grace Crunican."

What a load of crap.

This project REDUCES east-bound Mercer from the current 4 lanes to only three. In what way is that an increase in capacity for east-bound traffic on Mercer? Just yesterday afternoon (Sunday) at around 5, traffic on Mercer was backed up west of 5th Ave on ALL FOUR LANES of Mercer. And this clown wants us to believe that having only three lanes of Mercer eastbound will help move that traffic?

If Crunican actually had any concern about traffic flow on Mercer, she would have absolutely prevented putting the useless streetcar across Mercer Street, which has screwed up traffic on Mercer even worse than it was before. I don't recall Crunican objecting to the SLUT at any given time. Since she is nothing but a lapdog for our soon-to-be ex-mayor, I suspect she was a head cheeleader for the SLUT boondoggle, which serves no transportation purpose and screws up traffic on the Mercer/Valley corridor. This mistake alone prove her incompetence as transportation department director.

Thank god Nickels is gone, and I would expect that the idiot who wrote this article will be following that loser out the door.

Good riddance.

Here's a picture of demolition of the old Lincoln Mercury building (Westlake/Mercer) last Friday:
http://www.thesouthlake.com/2009/09/20/to-everything

To me, the real Mercer traffic question is where are these trips going to and from, and how many are single-occupant vehicles?

The Alaskan Way Viaduct Industrial Centers Survey revealed that "businesses surveyed recognize commuter solutions to driving alone have the best chance of reducing congestion."
http://www.seattle.gov/Transportation/awv_find.htm

Maybe I missed something somewhere but didn’t the cities’ DOT estimate increased travel time originally? ( 1984 was an excellent novel, wasn’t it?) It would seem to suggest that Ms Crunican’s numbers are either made up, or is she depending on a certain amount of east/west traffic to use the “re-established road grid” on other streets? It just doesn’t make any sense to think that three lanes are quicker than 4. Can someone please explain to us how this will be faster?

Nor did Ms Crunican mention that this project, when completed, will make a lovely entrance to Vulcanville--- er South Lake Union.

As with the viaduct, the visionaries who are dabbling with Mercer Street forget or ignore the fact that it is a transportation project. That means that its main purpose is to move the most popular choice of transport (rubber tired cars and trucks) as efficiently as possible. Crunican states it handles 80K vehicles a day making Mercer as efficient as any arterial in the city. Why would anyone, particularly someone charged with moving traffic, want to reduce its capacity? So why would anyone put any stock in the data from Crunican's office website?

The problem is that Seattle approaches huge capital projects as if they were building a theme park. (“Gee…we can tunnel right under the Reptile House here, and then bend the Tiny Town Trolley line around to the Ya’ Et’ Yet? Food Court. And then…) rather than dealing with logical solutions for specific problems.

Calling Mercer Street a “mess” does not make it so. You can stick your boots in the oven too, but that don’t make ‘em biscuits.

While it is counterintuitive to think that losing an eastbound lane on Mercer will not result in a loss of capacity, I do believe that reestablishing the grid will take a great deal of east-bound traffic off of Mercer. As a Queen Anne resident, I can't tell you how often I need to get to South Lake Union or Capital Hill, and am forced into the traffic jamb on Mercer. That will change when I can take Harrison or John instead for my local trips. Mercer is a freeway connector and has been encumbered by far too many local trips due to the disruptions to the grid. That said, it does mean that the promised results on Mercer are dependent on the changes to Hwy. 99 that enable the reconnection of the grid. Urban planners will tell you that a grid is still the most efficient way to move traffic, because of the multiplicity of options it provides. The "Mercer Mess" has always been about the way we've forced local traffic between neighborhoods onto the single major arterial that connects them. Take a look at the street layout (Google Earth is handy for that) and see how broken the grid is.

I do take exception to Ms. Crunican's assertion that these projects will restore the entire grid. The exception is Republican Street, which will not reconnect across Aurora and which has been vacated for 2 blocks in favor of the Gates Foundation's very anti-urban campus. Look for new opportunities down the road as these road projects progress. I predict additional right-of-way going to Gates (these street vacation deals are typically calculated at 50 percent of the market value of the real estate), including the current Broad Street right-of-way and a choice triangle of underused property at the corner of 6th and Harrison. It's good to be Gates...

Now I see why Crunican was given the job at SDOT - as a saleswoman. She doesn't go into the gritty details and only presents this project as all flowers and light, all a pretty picture of a wonderful transformation. The study finding that suggests reducing Mercer from 4- to 3-lanes eastbound, plus left-turn signals, actually reducing traffic congestion, is very hard to believe. Similarly, SDOT studies that suggest redirecting the Interbay-bound traffic that the Deep-bore tunnel will NOT accommodate -(40,000 vehicles daily, 2500 per hour)- onto the new Alaskan Way with 15-20 stoplights, will NOT create a huge bottleneck and gridlock, is equally hard to believe.

Crunican's job is not a matter of mere salesmanship. The used cars she's hawking have new paint, new tires, and Armor-all rubbed on the upholstery. But the engine, suspension and brakes need replacing. She's having a hard time selling the public on what appear to be mega-project lemons. So SDOT towed and left their carcasses on the public driveway and says it's too late to not approve the sale.

I'm glad Grace wrote this article. The Mercer project has issues but I still haven't seen a better plan, and something needs to be done.

As her sometimes mediocre performance on the job, most of the blame sits on the broad shoulders of her boss. The Nickels regime tried to control everything, much to the detriment of sensible planning. Grace herself is a smart cookie and I hope she gets a couple of years under a new mayor to see what she can really do.

Crunican neglects to mention that the latest travel times are based on the assumption that the South Lake Union Streetcar will not have signal priority, thereby knocking three minutes off each of the figures she cites.

This would add three minutes to South Lake Union Streetcar trips, which would take 18 minutes instead of 15.

This is a well-stated case for a long-overdue project. The current configuration has been called the "Mercer Mess" for the last 45 years for good reason. It doesn't work well for anyone the way it is now.

The current configuration is unintelligible to the uninitiated, and stressful and joyless to pass through repeatedly by any form of transportation. Nobody in their right mind would design a street network that routes westbound traffic first north on Fairview, then west on Valley onto Broad, right on Republican, right on 5th and left on Roy to get to Queen Anne. Denny is also a disaster, which will be improved once the street grid is reconnected across Aurora.

Amazon HQ and much other high-density office and research space is under construction or planned and the area is becoming a northern extension of downtown, with much higher pedestrian volumes expected. What we have now is a greater barrier to pedestrians and bicycles than the elevated freeway that was originally planned.

Long term, with all the planned development, the only way this area is going to function is if we can make it pedestrian-friendly enough that people can walk for short trips and commute by means other than driving.

The whole area is being rebuilt anyway and needs an infrastructure upgrade. Now is indeed the time to fix the Mercer Mess.

Um, getting rid of the connection that Broad Street provides to the south end of Seattle Center is going to make Denny much, much worse than it is now.

There's a reason none of the City traffic studies included scenarios for event peak traffic - the two one-way couplets now in use are much more efficient than the obscenely expensive scheme Vulcan has proposed and the Nickels Administration carried water for.

Denny will get much better, because traffic headed for Queen Anne or Magnolia will use Mercer rather than Denny (after Phase II). Speaking as one who jaywalks across Denny frequently (because it has those f*cking pushbuttons).

As a pedestrian and bicylist, I despise Mercer, Valley, Denny, and especially the Great Wall known as Aurora. Please build the upgrades!

Building fewer lanes through the Mercer corridor does offer more space for development of this near waterfront property, but freight service to Interbay and Ballard is definitely weakened.

The project criteria on this project in this contentious area appears to be 'environmentally friendly' in so far as it hurts independent business people and supports those in the legal pocket of the corporate welfare regulatory elite.

Given the history in this area the City needs to hold itself to the highest standards here, on that metric it does not measure up and damages the credibility of the entire bureaucracy.

No wonder these Mercer Corridor Projects are such a lightning rod: Vulcan, traffic efficiency, bored tunnel, streetcar, industrial freight, bike paths, oh my! Let me explain why I believe they are a poor use of our limited large project funds.

First on the phase I or Mercer East project from Fairview to Dexter. There is no question that the I-5 offramps are an extremely confusing configuration. This project would fix the design, but at what cost? Currently solo drivers, carpools, buses, and delivery trucks all compete in unsustainable traffic levels. The losers in the reconfiguration are transit, industrial users, and to a lesser extent westbound solo drivers. Where are the HOV or dedicated truck lanes? It also shows a poor understanding of Seattle boulevards, which as part of the Olmsted Plan adopted 100 years ago connected city parks via winding scenic roads like Interlaken Blvd. If this project created a new boulevard, it should be Valley, not Mercer with 6 lanes of traffic.

In my opinion the Mercer West project is even worse. It is a phenomenally expensive new freeway overpass with "improved bicycle and pedestrian facilities." We might get even more freeway overpasses as part of the bored tunnel North Portal, disguised as "reconnecting the street grid." It sounds suspiciously like more arterials with speeding traffic. Personally I would much rather see a bike/pedestrian overpass like Seattle Parks is building at W Thomas St over to Myrtle Edwards (cost: $1.5m, less than 1% of Mercer West).

joshuadf, the last rendering I saw of 99 had a full lid between Denny and Harrison. The three new connections would be minor streets.

I agree that a bike/pedestrian overpass or two would be fantastic. But even as a long-time advocate of that idea, it's a small fraction of the benefit of an at-grade street connection. Speaking as a pedestrian/bicyclist and non-driver, I find side streets infinitely more convenient than skybridges unless the bridges are at grade over a ditch. Even then, bridges don't connect neighborhoods in nearly the same way.

Seattle does a terrible job with overpasses. There aren't enough of them, so each one has to be a big highway. In other cities with more overpasses (ok, Seattle too for a portion of I-5 at First Hill), since there's an overpass at every block, each is just like a typical surface street with moderate traffic. And separated neighborhoods become one again.

HOV is not workable on Mercer, for several reasons. At every block, non-HOVs need to turn right or left as well. The different lanes are appropriate for different destinations (north, to I-5, continuing on Mercer, south). Much of the traffic entering the road comes from various cross streets. Basically you'd have a mess. HOV lanes are good for longer stretches with fewer entrances/exits.

Dedicated truck lanes are also not workable, for the same reasons.

Valley is sort of a boulevard in this plan.

Oh, and to get back to the headline for the story - Crunican is pretty much silent on how "Mercer West" is actually going to be funded.

Color me shocked.

http://www.seattle.gov/Transportation/images/Mercer%20Corrid

This link goes to SDOT's latest, detailed drawing of the project Dexter to I-5, Mercer to Aloha. It accurately depicts traffic lanes, sidewalks, curb extensions.

The drawing depicts light signal intersections (with signalized Left-turns) on Fairview, Westlake and 9th. Boren and Terry are signal intersections 'without' Left turn signals. The distinction is important for picturing signal timing and overall travel time between I-5 and 9th.

The point here is that Grace Crunican and SDOT generally do not portray a believable picture of how Mercer will be improved. She and SDOT exhibit the same serious shortcoming on many road projects, the Deep-bore tunnel, the new Alaskan Way, years of prior proposals on these, etc. So, it's little wonder people are left angrily doubting their veracity.

Mercer is obviously a mess long overdue for a redesign to restore some order to its chaos. This project will not of itself reduce daily traffic jams, but it will make them less chaotic.

Is it necessary to improve southbound access to the Deep-bore tunnel? I can't see how it improves southbound access to neither the Deep-bore nor the Battery Street tunnels. Just because SDOT, Crunican, McGinn, Mallahan or whoever says it does is not proof. How, where, what route improves this southbound access? Thus, I must question Phase II, especially the 2-way Mercer under Aurora. One WsDOT drawing looked like they were considering a Roundabout on Aurora at Roy and another drawing looked like a lighted intersection there. Either look like good southbound access to the tunnels. Northbound access from the tunnels to Mercer could occur there as well as the Republican exit.

No Kudos to Grace Crunican for failing to assuage public concerns. And, there are still questions whether Phase I is the best fix. As for financial considerations, development is likely to return funds to City coffers. And, new development will be a much better use of South Lake Union blocks, no doubt about it.

Wells, you make it sound like Aurora itself would have a roundabout. It would not. (In fact, roundabouts don't work at even remotely that sort of volume.) Aurora would function much as it does now.

Some drawings have done a poor job of showing what's "tunnel" vs what's "lid".

mhays,

I see there are some new designs at the site you linked before (thanks!)
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/Viaduct/workinggroupmaterials.htm

The tunnel is shown under the streets at John, Thomas, and Harrison, but I'll now assume that means it's underground (i.e., a lid). There is also the ventilation building between Thomas and Harrison. There is an off ramp at Republican. I still have misgivings.

Late on the arrival to this article but I just had to comment...Mercer is the largest pain in my day - I can't go anywhere from where I live without dealing with it. I'm not a planner and can't speak technically here I can just make my own observation. I can't see how this plan will work for both pedestrians and auto traffic. To me it makes no sense to connect two highways with a road meant for everyone. The only solution I see working is putting Mercer underground where pedestrians, local drivers and cyclists don't have to interact with it. Seattle needs to start acting like a real metropolitan city and not a town. There are just too many people using that arterial to think just making the street look pretty will fix everything. South Lake Union is in the physical position of being a great part of this city, it's on a lake! It should be a street walkers paradise not the dangerous mess it is for everyone.
-EAB

In 1995, an early "The Commons" proposal put Mercer below grade and capped between Fairview and 9th leading to Broad Street Tunnel. That design was scrapped. A Fairview (Place) was cut diagonally straight through to the intersection of Harrison and Terry. Every block was cleared from the lakefront to Harrison between this Fairview Place and 9th and dedicated to parkspace. More parkspace was extended from Harrison to Denny between Terry and 9th, again every block cleared. Wow.