Confused drivers create big backups around new Mercer St.
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SEATTLE -- After several years of planning and construction, Mercer Street in Seattle is now a two-way street, but the new configuration aimed at solving the "Mercer Mess" didn't exactly go as smooth as many had hoped.
Instead, the Monday inbound Mercer commute was met with gridlock as confused drivers struggled with the new configuration.
As the sun rose, we found drivers were stopped in the middle of the intersection, turned where they now weren't allowed to turn. We saw one driver flipped around going facing the wrong way on the street.
A couple hours later in the heart of the morning commute the back-ups grew and grew.
The main point of confusion stemmed from drivers coming off I-5 and for years knowing they had to either turn right or left on Fairview Avenue, with the majority turning right to snake their way into the Seattle Center area.
No more. The new Mercer configuration allows that inbound traffic to continue straight on Mercer where it will connect to Broad Street. But many drivers were still merging into the far right lane to turn right on Fairview. What's more, those drivers can no longer turn left on Valley to connect to Seattle Center as they did on Friday, instead forced east on Fairview and in the opposite direction they were likely heading.
You also are no longer allowed to make a left turn from Mercer onto Fairview during the next phase of construction as crews will work to widen Fairview Avenue.
WSDOT has said they were having "slight backups" on I-5 but one witness reported that even at 10:15 a.m., the backup to exit on Mercer Street from the southbound Express Lanes stretched over a mile and a half.
But the DOT says the backups will ease in a day or two as people get used to the new configuration.
This begins the third of four construction stages on the Mercer project. The third stage is expected to last through early 2013.
Traffic restrictions will be in effect during Stage 3, including the following:
• One northbound travel lane on Fairview Ave. N between Harrison and Valley streets
• No access to Fairview Ave. N via Republican St. and no southbound access at the I-5 off-ramps at Mercer St.
• One southbound lane on Fairview Ave. N from Aloha St. that connects to westbound Valley St.
• Valley St. closed to eastbound traffic east of Terry Ave. N
• Access maintained to Lake Union Park and businesses in Chandler’s Cove
Work to be completed during the third stage of construction includes undergrounding of electrical distribution, transmission and communication lines; replacement or relocation of water, sewer, and storm drainage systems; relocation of gas lines; widening Fairview Ave. N between Republican St. and Valley St.; and the installation of new pavement, sidewalks, signals, lighting, signage, intelligent transportation systems, landscaping and urban design features.
Learn more about the project at the Seattle DOT website
Instead, the Monday inbound Mercer commute was met with gridlock as confused drivers struggled with the new configuration.
As the sun rose, we found drivers were stopped in the middle of the intersection, turned where they now weren't allowed to turn. We saw one driver flipped around going facing the wrong way on the street.
A couple hours later in the heart of the morning commute the back-ups grew and grew.
The main point of confusion stemmed from drivers coming off I-5 and for years knowing they had to either turn right or left on Fairview Avenue, with the majority turning right to snake their way into the Seattle Center area.
No more. The new Mercer configuration allows that inbound traffic to continue straight on Mercer where it will connect to Broad Street. But many drivers were still merging into the far right lane to turn right on Fairview. What's more, those drivers can no longer turn left on Valley to connect to Seattle Center as they did on Friday, instead forced east on Fairview and in the opposite direction they were likely heading.
You also are no longer allowed to make a left turn from Mercer onto Fairview during the next phase of construction as crews will work to widen Fairview Avenue.
WSDOT has said they were having "slight backups" on I-5 but one witness reported that even at 10:15 a.m., the backup to exit on Mercer Street from the southbound Express Lanes stretched over a mile and a half.
But the DOT says the backups will ease in a day or two as people get used to the new configuration.
This begins the third of four construction stages on the Mercer project. The third stage is expected to last through early 2013.
Traffic restrictions will be in effect during Stage 3, including the following:
• One northbound travel lane on Fairview Ave. N between Harrison and Valley streets
• No access to Fairview Ave. N via Republican St. and no southbound access at the I-5 off-ramps at Mercer St.
• One southbound lane on Fairview Ave. N from Aloha St. that connects to westbound Valley St.
• Valley St. closed to eastbound traffic east of Terry Ave. N
• Access maintained to Lake Union Park and businesses in Chandler’s Cove
Work to be completed during the third stage of construction includes undergrounding of electrical distribution, transmission and communication lines; replacement or relocation of water, sewer, and storm drainage systems; relocation of gas lines; widening Fairview Ave. N between Republican St. and Valley St.; and the installation of new pavement, sidewalks, signals, lighting, signage, intelligent transportation systems, landscaping and urban design features.
Learn more about the project at the Seattle DOT website
No suprise. Seattle by far has to have some of the the worst street plans. I lived in Detroit and I never saw so many one way streets or messed up roads.
We tried to get to Fred Hutchison Cancer research center this morning from North Seattle and couldn't turn left onto Fairview when we exited I-5 nor is there any way to turn towards Lake Union and we couldn't figure out how to get there (you have to go south and loop way up the offramp?). Aurora also now has one less lane so that t and traffic is back up coming into the city that way. We no longer go into Seattle if we can avoid it.
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I am curious how will all of the thousands of new Amazon employees traffic impact be mitigated? It seems like the Mayor wants to make traffic so horrible that only those that can afford to live in the high rises can be in the city.
Sounds like someone didn't get the memo.
You gotta love Seattle government. Spend millions on traffic related studies for decades (Viaduct anyone?) then spend millions more with construction, road repairs, and "urban design" and "landscaping." Next, lock people up for petty crimes like DV and DUIs, (not talking about a man beating his wife either, I'm talking about a man that simply argues with his wife and gets locked up for months.) At the same time all around Seattle schools are closing, parks are shutting down, the government is complaining they are running out of money. There will always be traffic in a large city. I never had a problem with the way Mercer was all my life. I don't understand why it had to be changed in the first place. Can we take care of the more important issues first then worry about changing the design of our streets??
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yes, change can be frightening. you'll be okay.
 @FremontTroll "petty crimes like DV and DUIs"
neither of these are "petty" crimes - except maybe to the offender who doesn't acknowledge the harm that can come from them. Look at the "minor" disagreement over money that led to a man holding his wife hostage in a standoff at a credit union...nothing "petty" about that - people could have been hurt or killed in a situation like that.
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@OrcasThunder @FremontTroll I doubt if any of the relatives of those killed/injured by drunk drivers would consider DUI to be a petty crime either. Don't worry Fremont, you'll get the hang of the new layout eventually.
I think they solved the Mercer Mess by moving it to I-5 and the surrounding streets.
Man, this is gonna be an interesting evening commute! I think I'll just stick with the viaduct. Whether it's drivers or the DOT, seems like no one can get it together. Mercer Mess still alive and well.
Just more proof, Seattle has some of the worst drivers in the country.
 @Howard Beale You haven't lived in Boston
 @FremontTroll I'm from Boston. I would guess 50% of Seattle drivers if you dropped them in Boston would:
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A) Be curled up in the fetal position crying on the floor of their car because the right of way is a birth right, not a passive/aggressive you go, no you go, no I insist you go insanity that it here.
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B) Be in Mass General recovering from the injuries suffered by a severe beating due to their passive aggressive, no you go, oh please I must insist that you go first, behavior.
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C) Have car destroyed because they stopped within a rotary to yield to incoming traffic, or, as I see here so many times, decide that going around the rotary is too difficult so just cut the left into oncoming traffic, or have not figured out that a turn signal is a sign of weakness, or because they refused to yield the left lane on the Mass Pike while driving 55 MPH in a 60 zone, run over by a family of five from Revere on their way to Fenway.
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Boston drivers aren't bad - they are just very assertive.
I think the cabbies in Boston are the worst in the U.S. Assertive in Boston is an understatement!
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I agree with you on A.
When are drivers not confused in Seattle...
Reminds me of the confusion after the I-93 in Boston (the Big Dig) opened. People were gridlocked for quite a while!
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 @Stretch People are still confused in Boston. It's still a mess. The lack of street signage and confusing roads makes Boston the worst city to drive in. Add in the terrible rude drivers and the jaywalkers and it's not even worth driving in the city.Â
 @FremontTroll  @Stretch That's their perverted way of "encouraging you to ride the MBTA. The way Boston laid out the city is that some farmer let the cow feed ferment, some cows got into it and a paving crew followed the drunken cows.
Spent 5 years cursing that town and its roads before returning to the Northwest.
I didn't see confused drivers, I saw more cars than anticipated needing to turn right onto Valley and Fairview Avenue N. The Hutch and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance campus is right there and that detour is a mess. Many patients, staff and volunteers have been late and patients not from the Seattle area are getting lost.
Mercer Mess 2.0
People will get used to it. Â This is a crap news story that is manufactured for komonews.com profits
 @bearzooka Totally man, when I was sitting in traffic for an hour to get from 1 mile North of Mercer St exit to my job at the Hutch I was thinking the whole time, "so this is totally not a newsworthy item. I really hope the damn profit mongering media doesn't have a story explaining how best to get around this tomorrow. Lets all just figure this out ourselves." I'm sickened that I now know which roads are going to be inaccessible on my commute home. I was really hoping for the chance to sit around for another few hours and figure it out myself.
 @AesopsTables Sad that you need the media to tell you where to drive
 @bearzooka  @AesopsTables And how else are you going to figure out the new configuration before you drive on it? At least KOMO is reporting the plans for road closures during construction. Are you a savant or something?
 @bearzooka Excellent point. What sort of sad sap has to use a news outlet to obtain information?
It's been all over the news. I know that and I live in Tacoma. Some people just can't have their cheese moved.
People confused? Hmmmm me thinks that mapQuest, Google maps, and some GPS units will also be totally confused making it worse, especially for those visiting from out of town. Oh My!
@My opinion is:Sometimes I think all those programs are more a hinderance than a help. We all seemed to manage for decades without them - yet now, people act like they can't even go to the local grocery store without them!
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I had people coming to my home to pick up soccer gear for the past 3 weeks. Where I live, my street is only 1/2 block long & is not signed with it's actual name. We do NOT show up on GPS, google, mapquest, any of them. So, I gave explicit turn by turn instruction with landmarks on how to find us. Even so, I had many people asking for my address for their GPS/mapping programs.
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Are we all becoming so stupidly dependent on gadgets that we cannot think & figure things out for ourselves? Do we need to follow a little screen on our dashboards instead of observing our surroundings & figuring it out for ourselves?
 @LocalLady  @My My favorite is seeing people stuck in the fire lanes on the UW campus staring blankly at their GPS or Google Maps printout, unable to believe that they would be let down like this and helpless to find a way out.
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The GPS needs to learn UW ISN'T a short cut, there is only one ring road through campus and it is 20 mph.Â
 @My opinion is To be fair, Google Maps has already updated to reflect the new configuration, but at the same time they're showing both sets of Mercer lanes pointing in the eastbound direction, which might confuse people even more...
Just how dumb can people be, they drove through the construction, they knew changes were coming and yet when the changes were put in place the drivers show just how total stupid they can be by not paying attention. Lemmings over the cliff
....Confused drivers create big backups around Puget Sound roads on a consistent regular basis...nothing special about Mercer.
Combine that with abject moronic decisions from political leadership about how to spend tax monies on roads & transportation projects and you get what we have in this region.
Why am I not surprised?