It’s official: Date set for opening of tunnel, end of Viadoom
Jan 31, 2019, 1:23 PM | Updated: 1:48 pm
Seattle's SR 99 tunnel. (Chris Sullivan, KIRO Radio)
(Chris Sullivan, KIRO Radio)
Viadoom will officially come to an end on schedule, marked by the opening of the SR 99 tunnel on Monday, Feb. 4.
RELATED: Workers race against the clock to finish new SR 99 tunnel
RELATED: A full timeline of the SR 99 tunnel work since Viadoom began
The Washington State Department of Transportation made the announcement early Thursday afternoon. The goal is to be finished with all work by 5 a.m., following final touches, cleaning, and a security sweep.
UPDATE: In the early hours of Monday, Feb. 4, crews will begin opening the new SR 99 tunnel to traffic! 🎉 The process to open will take several hours, but the #99Tunnel will be fully open by the time you hit the road for your Monday morning commute! pic.twitter.com/trg2zeMPI4
— SR 99 (@BerthaDigsSR99) January 31, 2019
Between Thursday and the opening of the new tunnel, WSDOT has an “item by item, hour by hour” to-do list to ensure that everything is ready in time.
As for how it feels to finally be at the finish line?
“Exhausting — to be frank, this has been a long time coming,” WSDOT’s Dave Sowers told KIRO Radio. “I think a lot of the engineers and administrative staff around here will be pretty glad when Monday comes.”
A forecast for snow on Monday won’t affect the opening of the tunnel, barring anything in the realm of six inches overnight.
WSDOT also urges people to pay close attention to signage in the area, especially given that there are no downtown exits for the tunnel — if you accidentally enter the tunnel, you’re there for the full two miles.
On Google Maps, you can actually see the full route of the tunnel now as it runs through downtown.
An additional heads up: The northbound off-ramp to Dearborn won’t open for about another week.
“There’s still work to build that ramp. We’ve messaged that for a fair amount of time now. Folks coming from West Seattle, continue using 1st and 4th Avenue getting into the city” said Sowers on Tuesday.
