MyNorthwest.com Staff

After years of congestion and grinding traffic on Seattle's Mercer Street, there's an end in sight.

Wednesday's groundbreaking marks the beginning of construction on the corridor that will create a two-way boulevard, new sidewalks and bicycle lanes, and improved transit connections.

"We're converting Mercer to a two-way street by widening it to the north by 80 feet," said Angela Brady, Mercer Corridor project manager for the Seattle Department of Transportation.

It's not just Mercer Street; over the next 3 years, crews will rebuild South Lake Union's arterials from the ground up. Fairview Avenue, Westlake Avenue, and Ninth Avenue are part of the project.

The Mercer Street area in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood has been referred to as the "Mercer Mess." According to the Seattle Department of Transportation, the roadway can't handle the 800,000 vehicles that use it every day. So it may not be a surprise that more than 200 accidents are reported on the stretch of road each year. The SDOT also says the area's utilities are 80 to 115 years old.

According to Brady, commuters will see the work, but if all goes well, the construction will not make the Mercer mess any messier. "We can actually do the majority of the work on Mercer outside of the existing right-of-way on the north side of the street," she said.

The project will happen in two phases: Mercer East and Mercer West. The first phase (East) is scheduled to be completed in mid-2012. Phase two will then begin and will wrap up by 2015. Mercer West (phase two) focuses on I-5 and Elliott Avenue West, which includes widening the Aurora underpass and converting Roy Street to a two-way street.

"The entire Mercer Corridor project area will be entirely unrecognizable from what it is today," Brady said. Mercer will become a boulevard with a wide median and wider sidewalks, lined with trees when the work is finished.

Funding includes $30 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood praised lawmakers who voted for the controversial federal spending. "Voting for this bill was a tough vote, it's not easy to do that and I'm a former member of the U.S. House and I know a tough vote and this was one. But it was the right vote, it was the right vote for workers," says LaHood.

More than 100 people gathered in the rain at the site of a former auto dealership for the ground breaking ceremony attended by Governor Chris Gregoire, Senator Patty Murray and Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn.

You might also be interested in:

• Construction photos
• More news from South Lake Union