Driver ‘blues’ for our roads this week
Aug 1, 2017, 6:28 AM | Updated: Aug 4, 2017, 8:30 am
The end of this week is going to be unbearable through Seattle as the Blue Angels visit for their annual Seafair performances.
RELATED: Where to watch the Blue Angels
The best advice for Thursday through Sunday is to just avoid being anywhere near downtown during the early afternoons because I-90 will be closed for each session.
PHOTOS: Blue Angels take practice flights over Lake Washington
The worst day is usually Thursday when the Blue Angels have two practice sessions. The first is from 9:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. The second goes from 1 p.m. to 2:40 p.m. The roads never really get a chance to clear out from that morning practice before the afternoon session. I-5, I-90, 520 and I-405, and their alternates, are pretty much parking lots. You can also expect the ramps on I-90 to start closing up to 30 minutes before the Blue Angels take flight.
Friday is also tough for drivers because the one session from 12:55 p.m. to 2:40 p.m. creates a jam that runs right into the normal Friday nightmare. You can get around on the weekend during 12:55 p.m. to 2:40 p.m. sessions with a little bit of planning.
Most people assume the bridge must close for the Blue Angels’ practice for safety, should a pilot have a problem in flight. A Blues pilot told me years ago it’s actually for the pilots’ safety. They don’t want any distractions on the bridge. They don’t want anything that will send a sudden glare into their eyes. When you’re 18 inches apart at 360 knots, that’s not what you want, and they use points on the bridge to set their flight paths.
“We have a basic kitchen timer in the jet, a stopwatch, and we’ll fly at 360 knots ground speed so every 10-seconds is a mile,” the pilot said. “We’ll call-out what we see. It could be the right side of a bridge or a house with a red roof and we’ll transpose that to essentially Google Earth imagery and study that chart before we go flying.”
This is the first Blue Angels show with Sound Transit in charge of the center roadway on the I-90 bridge. The agency said its contractor will not be doing any work on the floating bridge during the practice or show sessions.
