City tackles Mercer Mess

The plan for fixing the Mercer Mess continues to chug along, even though more analysis by the city of Seattle is showing it won't do much to get people around faster.

The city's latest analysis of travel times under Mayor Greg Nickels' $100 million plan to widen Mercer Street and turn it into a two-way road will be unveiled at a community meeting this afternoon. That analysis, completed this week, shows that commuters could save a few minutes heading west on Mercer from Interstate 5, but they actually could spend more time in traffic going east toward the interstate.

To really make a dent in getting around, the study found, the city would have to do a more extensive project that would involve lowering Aurora Avenue North into a trench and having Harrison and Thomas streets run above it. Freeing those two streets from dead ends at Aurora would make it easier to get around.

But according to the most recent estimates, lowering Aurora would cost an additional $300 million, and it's no sure thing the city will even get the first $100 million.

"Mercer is definitely in play," said Kjris Lund, chief of staff for the Regional Transportation Investment District, or RTID, which is preparing a tax package to present to voters next year to pay for road and transit improvements in urban areas of King, Pierce and Snohomish counties. Lund said the Mercer Street project is not on RTID's preliminary list of projects.

Dealing with the long-standing headache known as the Mercer Mess has been a major emphasis for the city of Seattle and the Nickels administration. Queen Anne residents and residents of the burgeoning South Lake Union neighborhood have felt cut off from each other by Aurora Avenue.

The push to make getting to and from South Lake Union is made all the more important because of major development plans for the neighborhood. Vulcan Inc., Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's development company, in particular has been pushing for the changes.

Today Mercer Street has four lanes that head in one direction toward I-5. Under the $100 million proposal, Mercer would have three lanes in each direction, as well as sidewalks, bike paths and a center median strip with landscaping.

That would mean that if you wanted to go west after getting off of I-5 at Mercer Street, you wouldn't have to first jog north on Fairview Avenue to get to westbound Valley Street. Instead you'd simply go straight on the new two-way Mercer Street.

Valley Street, under the less expensive proposal, would be narrowed from five to two lanes in an attempt to create a quiet gateway to South Lake Union Park.

In addition to sinking Aurora Avenue North, the expanded plan calls for extending the widened Mercer Street beyond Aurora all the way west to Fifth Avenue North.

Proponents and opponents are divided over what the less ambitious Mercer project would do for the Mercer Mess.

City Council President Nick Licata, the lone critic of the proposal on the council two years ago when it approved money to study Mercer, said Wednesday, "It'll still be a Mercer Mess, just a more expensive one."

With an estimated $500 million backlog in basic street maintenance projects, and other expensive projects in the pipeline such as replacing the Magnolia Bridge, Licata says there are better uses for the money.

But transportation officials and the majority of City Council members say that even without shortening travel times, the project is worth doing. Proponents say a widened Mercer Street would help move traffic when the Alaskan Way Viaduct is being replaced.

On Monday, the City Council voted to allow the city's Transportation Department to spend $2.8 million to continue designing both Mercer projects.

The findings on the project's impacts on travel times are not new. Transportation officials and a consultant hired by Nickels two years ago acknowledged that the work would not do much to get people around faster.

The city is hoping to finish work on Mercer by 2010. Eric Tweit, the city's lead planner on the project, said the city only has a general idea of how long and disruptive the work would be. Widening Mercer Street would take about a year to 18 months, and the work on Valley Street would take about a year. Tweit said the city might be able to keep traffic moving smoothly while widening Mercer.

WANT TO LEARN MORE?

Seattle Transportation Director Grace Crunican will be on hand at an open house from 4 to 6 p.m. today to give a progress report on fixing the Mercer Mess. The meeting will take place at the Best Western Executive Inn, 200 Taylor Ave. N.

To learn more about plans for the Mercer corridor, go to: www.ci.seattle.wa.us/transportation/ppmp_mercer.htm

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