WSDOT by Viaduct rubbish removal - Oct 23, 2011 from the Seattlest Flickr pool. more ›

Listen up, Eastsiders. We know the POTUS put a cramp in your travels last weekend, but it likely won't hold a candle to the pain of the northbound I-405 closure that's coming your way. There are also street-closing events in Issaquah and Kirkland. So read up and plan ahead. more ›

Residents of the area know: the last few wet winters (and summers) have taken their toll on one of North Seattle's most heavily traveled arterials, and it's starting to show. more ›

South End Viaduct Replacement Carpenter -2 by WSDOT from the Seattlest Flickr pool. more ›

July13_11 99 bridge construction10 by WSDOT from the Seattlest Flickr pool. more ›

What are the men and women of road construction doing while you're stuck in traffic, or sleeping soundly in your white-collar bed? Oh, just this. more ›

Start your morning with some of the stories everyone's been talking about, including the Mercer Mess and those magnificent Ms. more ›

Uncovering pieces of Seattle's history, one high-speed rail station at a time. more ›

We're keeping an eye on the doomed McGuire building. Get your updates here. more ›

Have you heard about the new developments at 19th and Madison? more ›

Re:Take is local history buff Rob Ketcherside's weekly look at the Emerald City now and in days of yore through photos dug out of the city archives. This week, south Seattle booms with bubbly 1920s auto expansion. more ›

Re:Take is local history buff Rob Ketcherside's weekly look at the Emerald City now and in days of yore through photos dug out of the city archives. Ready for a cliche landmark construction photo? Read on! more ›

We mentioned a few days ago that WSDOT is doing construction on southbound I-5 this weekend, and that a lane will be closed from Yale to Union Street from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday. But we want to warn you that northbound traffic won't be all giggles and schadenfreude--they're keeping the express lanes open southbound all day to help with the lane closure, so northbound is gonna be molasses in January, too. Plus, Seahawks fans, getting near Qwest Field is just part of the fun: "WSDOT is building a bridge over the railroad tracks on S. Royal Brougham Way and a new off-ramp from I-90 and I-5 to S. Atlantic Street/Edgar Martinez Drive S. Construction is also under way on nearby city of Seattle projects and on WSDOT’s Alaskan Way Viaduct Electrical Line Relocation project. Fans should expect construction-related lane, parking and pedestrian access restrictions related to these projects south of Qwest Field." more ›

The Seattle Times has broken a story about a Port of Seattle construction oopsie that has cost $200,000 and may eventually cost $1 million. Puts that $40,000 bonus for Carrasco for doing things right in a new light, doesn't it? "Clearly the contractor should've built the trench at 2.52 inches and it's 2.5," said newish Port Commission President Bill Bryant, proving that it doesn't make much difference who you vote for for Port Commissioner, you're still going to be faced with someone saying really weird things after things go awry. The Port requested a trench's width to the hundredths of an inch? We're of the mind that anything wider than the cable would have been fine. (PS to Bob Young: Is Tay Yoshitani on vacation? Why no statement from the Port CEO?) more ›

• Monday evening, Seattle police discovered an unidentified human body that had drowned in Lake Washington and washed ashore the beach of Lake Cottage Park.
• Good news for ORCA card holders: Seattle Transit Blog says the Seattle Streetcar will be adding ORCA readers to stations starting next year.

• The bus tunnel shut down at 7:10 a.m. this morning for about 20 minutes, thanks to an automated (and false) alarm--for the third time in six months. Funnily enough, we think every time has been during morning rush hour, too.
• Publicola's newest addition, Erica Barnett, broke the news to Seattle taxpayers that we've paid over $43,000 since 2006 to send the City Council's Jan Drago to China, India, Iceland, the United Arab Emirates, and Finland.

"Baby with hard hat, 1959" by Seattle Municipal Archives, from the Seattlest Flickr Pool. more ›

We took the I-5 Mercer Street/Seattle Center exit the other night and while waiting for the light to change, we noticed ten--a seemingly abnormal amount--construction cranes littering the South Lake Union neighborhood. (Yes, some probably dedicated to building the new Amazon HQ.) more ›

"New Hive @ Night" by Ray Hutchinson, plucked from our Flickr pool more ›

Agreed, traffic sucks. But when you're driving alone, at what point do you make the (illegal, mind you) decision to cross the solid white line and make a quick run into the 3+ person HOV lane? Tsk, tsk. We know you're out there. We can see you. We also curse and shake our fist at you. It's happening more and more. HOV cheaters are breezing by, as the rest of us law abiding drivers are stuck in the onslaught of 520 traffic congestion, brought on by the construction chaos of I-90. Just remember, cheaters, what comes around goes around and those HOV lanes violations will set you back $124. more ›

• We got us some more swine flu. One case turned deadly in Washington. While the CDC reported that more cases were confirmed, bringing us to a grand total of 83. Oh joy, King County now has a total of 56 confirmed cases.
• A slew of freak accidents: Small helicopter crash near Tacoma, bumps and bruises for the two aboard; Farm tractor starts up unexpectedly killing a Deer Park man as it drove over his chest; A Navy SEAL died in training near Keyport, Wash.
• In the forever-long Amanda Knox case, a footprint expert (those exist?) confirmed that the bloody footprint on a bathroom rug belonged to her ex-boyfriend.

• Seattle's newest main stream celebrity: Bacon Salt. The bacon-loving boys reached the pinnacle of fame and product placement, on today's episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show.
• Keep an eye on the road, because this weekend will be filled with road cones and construction delays.
• We scream, you scream, everyone screams for ice cream--especially for Molly Moon's ice cream. Capitol Hill's newest--and most indulgent--resident opens its doors on Saturday.

Construction projects are synonymous with spring, and this season it is no different, as the Pike Place Market's $73-million, much-needed renovation begins to get underway. The first phase of projects will start with the the foul-smelling, long-winded Hillclimb entrance, a stairwell off Western Avenue. Now, before you start complaining about cranes and construction eyesores, the Market is taking a lesson from the blueprints of Bob the Builder and asking the public to "Name That Crane." What better way to deal with the effects of a soon-to-be erected, 150-foot crane inhabiting the city's skyline for nearly a year, other than humanizing construction equipment. Brilliant. Deadline to submit names, June 1, 2009. more ›

How convenient! The Washington State Department of Transportation now has a map where you can see exactly where our federal stimulus money will be improving the state's highways and byways. The projects are concentrated, as expected, along I-5 and I-90, with a spattering up by Spokane and a few down towards Yakima. Here's the Washington Jobs Now project list; so far, five of the stimulus projects are at "Gone To Ad" status, whatever that means. more ›

Construction alert! We've got it all right here. more ›

Up in Kenmore, a woman awoke to a giant, 15 foot sinkhole in her driveway this morning. When unusual seemingly natural phenomena occur at Seattlest HQ, our kneejerk response is to think back over our possible sins of the last 24 hours in case we managed to unknowingly aggravate the pantheon. However, in this case, it looks like the sinkhole was caused not by malicious pavement sprites but by a tunnel boring machine chipping away at the earth 150 feet below Pauline Chihara's driveway. The machine is part of King County's Brightwater sewage water treatment project. Brightwater officials are saying something about a "migrating void" and promising to investigate further, lest more upright county citizens find unpleasant pits of hell on their property as the project continues. more ›

The corner of Denny and Dexter represents the latest outbreak in an epidemic of uninspired developments destined to pollute our landscape for generations. more ›

The slurry hits the fan tonight on southbound I-5 under the Convention Center, we're told by WSDOT Twitter. Lanes are being closed while the broken, cracked, 40-year-old concrete is being fixed. WSDOT, break it down:
• Contractor crews will begin closing the southbound lanes of I-5 at Stewart Street at 8 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 13. Three out of five lanes will be closed by 11 p.m.
• The Union Street off-ramp and Howell Street on-ramp will also be closed. Detour signs are in place. You can find detour maps here.
• The I-5 express lanes will remain open in the southbound direction all weekend so drivers can get to downtown Seattle. We want to remind drivers that the Pike/Pine and 5th/Columbia exits are HOV only. Mercer Street, Stewart Street and through traffic is for all drivers.

The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) will be providing a huge chunk of financial support for Seattle's light-rail project--to the tune of $813 million. That's about 40% of the total cost, says the math-savvy P-I this morning. Doesn't sound like the extra federal funding, an increase from initial promises, will make the work go any faster; we're still looking at 2016 as a finish date for the main light-rail route from downtown to the UW. Reading all the details about tunneling in different kinds of soil is exciting, though, and reminds us that this is really happening. We're really getting light-rail! 2016 is only seven Christmases away! more ›

This morning we were down at the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce breakfast and regional economic forecast discussion, which opened with chair Tayloe Washburn being emotionally overcome while talking about how strapped food banks are for donations. (At which point we sorely regretted suggesting the chamber was "populated largely by jaw-dangling idiots," and wished we'd stuck to the rule of vilifying awful ideas rather than the people whose heads they're stinking up.) more ›