Drivers confused as Mercer Mess opens to two-way traffic

With two-way traffic restored to Seattle’s “Mercer Mess”, one of Seattle’s biggest traffic choke points is finally cleared, but drivers are still finding plenty of problems.

>>>Seattle Department of Transportation website

KIRO Traffic Reporter Kimi Kline says it’s a good idea to just avoid it altogether. She says the lights still aren’t quite timed right on Mercer. WSDOT recommends exiting I-5 earlier at Olive or University.

The Seattle Department of Transportation has officially opened Mercer Street to two-way traffic and westbound drivers can no longer turn left down Fairview Ave. Crews have blocked off the left turn lanes for eastbound drivers on Mercer ahead of Fairview Ave.

KING-5 reports workers say more than 100 drivers who exited the freeway onto Mercer tried to turn the wrong way Monday morning. The next available left is Westlake Ave.

SDOT says there could be delays all week as people get used to the changes. Traffic officers have been added at several intersections and SDOT will be posting more warning signs.

A detour on Fairview at Eastlake is also causing plenty of confusion and tie ups as Seattle police officers try and direct traffic around the construction projects.

Bus riders may also be confused because Fairview routes have been moved to Eastlake Ave. for the 4 to 6 months as construction on the Mercer Mess project transitions to the south.

“It means catching the bus a little earlier,” said Jeff Switzer, with the King County Department of Transportation. “It means leaving a bit earlier. Those are the kinds of steps that we hope people can take.”

The impacted bus routes are the 70, 71, 72, 73, 83 and 309.
>>>Check the King County Metro website

Construction around the area is far from over. Work on the area west of Dexter Ave. is expected to begin in 2013.

“Fairview both north and south of Mercer will get a complete rebuild, and Valley will be converted into a two-way park-oriented boulevard but obviously a much smaller roadway than the Valley that exists now,” says Rick Sheridan with the SDOT.

The change is a welcome one for drivers who’ve faced huge backups for decades.

Seattle historian Feliks Banel says the Mercer Mess came into being in the early 1960’s. The city converted it to one-way traffic in anticipation of a new freeway that never got built.

“It was called the Bay Freeway. It would have connected Interstate 5 with Aurora,” Banel says.

But after a series of protests, local leaders changed their minds and killed the Bay Freeway.

“The people were thinking ‘Wait a minute let’s not destroy Pike Place Market. Maybe Seattle isn’t the place to build a big freeway in every part of the city we can put one,'” Banel says.

Banel says while he can find references to the term “Mercer Mess” as far back as the 1960’s, the area has seen plenty of congestion since the early 1900’s when Boeing and Ford both operated factories in the South Lake Union area.

But in the interim, the ongoing construction means while one mess is cleared, another is made.