Traffic Lab

Traffic Lab

Traffic Lab is a Seattle Times project that digs into the region’s thorny transportation issues, spotlights promising approaches to easing gridlock, and helps readers find the best ways to get around. Traffic Lab receives financial support from Pemco Mutual Insurance Company. Seattle Times editors and reporters maintain editorial control over Traffic Lab content.

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August 12, 2022 at 6:00 am

Sound Transit 3: Progress in West Seattle, paralysis in Chinatown International District

Voters approved ST3 in 2016. Here’s a status report on where things stand for neighborhoods around Seattle and for the entire $14 billion line.

Workers marked off a lane of I-5 before an overnight shift Monday, to grind some pavement before a huge repaving job this weekend — when four southbound lanes close through Sodo. 217464 217464

August 11, 2022 at 3:57 pm

Merge right: I-5 roadwork to block lanes all weekend in Sodo

WSDOT's "Revive I-5" project flips to the left side this weekend, so there will be no southbound express lanes and Sodo drivers must keep right.

The concrete strike is finally over as work continues on the West Seattle Bridge Monday, April 11, 2022. The strike delayed the reopening of the bridge. 220095

August 11, 2022 at 10:30 am

West Seattle Bridge reopening date set WATCH

The date, a beacon of hope, is the most specific milestone set by the city since the West Seattle Bridge closed in 2020 due to...

Local News

August 10, 2022 at 12:03 pm

Northbound I-405 weeknight closures announced

Crews with the Washington State Department of Transportation will be setting girders for the new Main Street Bridge.

Greg Banks, a bridge engineer at WSP USA, Inc., cheks out the initial stabilization that was done inside the West Seattle bridge in 2020 in order to make sure it wouldn’t fall down. Recently two sets of cables containing post tension wires (on both side of the cables at center) were added as a final repair to make the bridge stronger. Both sets of repairs work together to strengthen the bridge.. Shot Tuesday, August 9, 2022.

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August 10, 2022 at 6:00 am

A tour inside the West Seattle Bridge reveals ‘banjo tight’ repairs WATCH

Closed for more than two years, the West Seattle Bridge is about to reopen with a massive 92-ton infusion of steel to strengthen it.

FILE – A driver uses a cell phone in Yarmouth, Maine, Sept. 8, 2009. New research indicates that state laws that are broadly worded to prohibit drivers from holding a cell phone under any circumstance appear to be effective in reducing rear-end crashes. The research paper, published by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety on Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022, looked at data from Oregon, Washington and California and compared it to Colorado and Idaho. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File) NYSS302 NYSS302

August 9, 2022 at 7:43 am

New research pushes states on distracted driving

Data indicates that broadly written state laws that prohibit drivers from holding a cellphone under any circumstance appear to be effective in reducing rear-end crashes.