Regional Boards > Northwest
Does Seattle have long term plans for I-5?
OCGuy81:
This is an absolute bottleneck, with no room to grow because of the limited space between Lake Washington and Puget Sound.
Have there ever been any thoughts to doing a tunnel, similar to what they did with Alaskan Way?
PNWRoadgeek:
--- Quote from: OCGuy81 on August 02, 2023, 08:45:37 AM ---Have there ever been any thoughts to doing a tunnel, similar to what they did with Alaskan Way?
--- End quote ---
I-5 through a small part of downtown is already a tunnel. However, it's 2 separate tunnels and even with a tunnel, I-5 would still have tons of traffic. No one wants office buildings in Seattle demolished just because they want to widen a freeway. It's a bottleneck because it's in a busy area and people are trying to get to places using the freeway. At least the express lanes are mostly through a tunnel, but they only help a little bit.
1:
The I-5 corridor seems to be lacking in good surface alternates other than WA 99. If say, Martin Luther King Jr. Way had more interchanges or simply fewer cross streets, some people who would take I-5 currently would prefer to take the now-faster Martin Luther King Jr Way, which also saves on distance. It's probably too late to fix it now, though.
I assume a wide bypass using the existing WA 16/3 corridor is infeasible?
Bruce:
--- Quote from: OCGuy81 on August 02, 2023, 08:45:37 AM ---This is an absolute bottleneck, with no room to grow because of the limited space between Lake Washington and Puget Sound.
Have there ever been any thoughts to doing a tunnel, similar to what they did with Alaskan Way?
--- End quote ---
Seattle, being an isthmus, will always have transportation bottlenecks. Building expensive new freeways that will immediately clog and attract more traffic would be pointless and ruin swaths of the city. The long-term plan is to get as many people onto grade-separated transit (Link light rail) and buses for in-city travel and route through-travelers around on I-405.
I-5 will be seeing major construction in the next few years, but it'll be a long-overdue resurfacing project that goes all the way up to Northgate. It's being put on hold until the light rail extension in Lynnwood opens, since buses would be feeding it to get people away from the freeway.
--- Quote from: 1 on August 02, 2023, 12:02:31 PM ---The I-5 corridor seems to be lacking in good surface alternates other than WA 99. If say, Martin Luther King Jr. Way had more interchanges or simply fewer cross streets, some people who would take I-5 currently would prefer to take the now-faster Martin Luther King Jr Way, which also saves on distance. It's probably too late to fix it now, though.
I assume a wide bypass using the existing WA 16/3 corridor is infeasible?
--- End quote ---
MLK Way was the corridor for the RH Thomson Expressway, which would have wiped out Seattle's largest Black neighborhood. It was cancelled thanks to outcry from multiple neighborhoods and groups from across the spectrum, so it's safe to say it would be downright suicidal to propose today. SR 16/3 makes no sense as a bypass since it would require a ferry ride (or two) at the north end, which eats up any time savings this theoretical freeway would have. A cross-Sound bridge wouldn't be feasible unless we can invent something that can meet all the needs (not $1 trillion, high enough for cargo ships, low enough to not need giant approaches, possibly floating due to the depth of the Sound).
I-5 isn't that bad as long as you don't drive during peak of peak or in the reverse of the express lanes during peak hours. Just plan smartly and you can avoid congestion, or wait it out in the city where there's plenty to do.
Bickendan:
Or you could just do what I did when I went up to Seattle back in March: Drive up WA 99 from Tacoma to Everett :bigass:
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