The West Side Of The Mercer Mess Ramps Up

Driving around Seattle this weekend will be trickier than normal. The Seattle Department Of Transportation plans to close parts of Aurora and Mercer Street around South Lake Union as part of the effort to convert Mercer into a two-way street. The city's now focusing on the Mercer West project, the section of Mercer between Dexter Avenue and West Fifth Avenue.

Here’s the gist of the weekend closures.

• Aurora will be completely closed between Valley Street and the southern end of the Battery Street Tunnel. Unlike previous Aurora closures, there will be no access from the highway to Denny Street.
• Mercer Street between Dexter and Fifth Avenue North will be completely closed.
• There will be detours posted. Here’s the city’s map.

The closures are scheduled to start Friday at 11:00 p.m., and the roads will re-open Monday at 5:00 a.m.. Once the roads re-open there will be lane restrictions.

• The eastbound traffic on Mercer Street between Fourth Avenue North and Ninth Avenue North will be restricted to two lanes. Broad Street will re-open and will be an alternate route to Interstate 5.
• Traffic on Aurora between Valley and Harrison streets will be shifted to the west side of the roadway.

SDOT project manager Eric Tweit has said the Mercer project will mainly benefit the Queen Anne and South Lake Union neighborhoods. The work is scheduled to be finished in 2015.