Port slowdown causes long traffic backups into West Seattle

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A slowdown at the Port of Seattle prompted a lengthy backup into West Seattle Thursday afternoon.

According to the Seattle Department of Transportation, the Spokane St. Viaduct WB, I-5 exits to the West Seattle Bridge, and E Marginal Way NB & SB had long lines of semi-trucks and commuters.

KIRO Radio traffic reporter Kimi Kline says the backups dissipated by 4 p.m.

One truck driver, who wished to remain nameless, told KIRO Radio that on a bad day, it takes an hour or hour and a half to drop off a load at the port.

“I got there at 6 a.m. and I got out of there at 1:03 p.m. – was when I left the port. The whole time, I was waiting for them to do their job,” he said.

Port spokesperson Peter McGraw said, “(We’re) working with our transportation partners and the terminal operator to move cargo as quickly and safely as possible.”

He added that longshoremen are dealing with a surge of products from Eastern Washington, which is causing the unusually high amount of backups.

“Between the work disruption that’s been going on for the past couple of months, the three large vessels the terminal is working, and the surge of export commodities that folks are trying to get onto the terminal to export, it’s a perfect storm of a situation that we have,” McGraw said.

He added that the port hopes to have the issues resolved by the weekend.