Is Mercer Mess getting messier?

Q: Is there any hope for the Mercer Mess? Queen Anne resident Roger Morse says all the area construction, all the mismatched and mistimed and out-of-sync traffic signals, and all the disrepair, not to mention the new South Lake Union Streetcar, are making the Mercer corridor gridlock even messier.

One weekday evening not long ago, he says, it took him six minutes to travel a half-mile on Interstate 5, north from the state convention center in downtown Seattle to the freeway's Mercer-Fairview exit.

Then, it took him nine minutes to get from the freeway exit to Westlake Avenue North.

"No accidents. No events. Just gridlock," he said.

And traveling from Westlake to the I-5 ramps is equally awful, he added. "What is the city of Seattle doing about this?

"How much longer do taxpaying citizens have to wait? When will the chaos, the wasted time, the wasted fuel and the negative impact on business and quality-of-life be dealt with?"

A: Angela Brady, the Seattle Transportation Department's Mercer Street project manager, swears the city is actively moving forward with plans to increase capacity and reduce travel times through the Mercer corridor.

"We have finalized the project's design, acquired all the needed property, and have strong support from the City Council, the Port of Seattle and numerous neighborhood groups," she said.

The city has secured $140.5 million for the project, with $31.4 million in private contributions. The city now hopes to land $50 million in federal funds to help improve Mercer Street from the freeway west to Dexter Avenue North, she said.

"In short," she added, "the plan includes widening Mercer to create a two-way boulevard, reconstructing Valley Street as a local access road, providing new and wider sidewalks, improving connections to transit and adding bicycle lanes."

So what about a time frame? She offered none.

Q: At least twice this fall, Seattle resident Nick Mancuso says, he has exited Interstate 5's southbound express lanes at Stewart Street in Seattle and encountered a near collision with another car. In both cases, he said, he had the green light at Stewart and Eastlake Avenue East.

"I am unsure what traffic indication the southbound vehicles had on Eastlake," he said, "but in both cases they continued south to Howell Street," without stopping. "I proceeded on Stewart, while they proceeded on Eastlake to Howell."

Demolition derby?

"How are vehicles being signaled to proceed from Eastlake to Howell at the same time vehicles are being signaled to proceed from the I-5 exit ramp to Stewart?" he asked. "This is a disaster waiting to happen."

A: Southbound traffic on Eastlake does not have a green light at the same time as the express lanes offramp, says a Seattle Transportation Department spokesman. But the offramp for the freeway's mainline lanes at Stewart do run concurrent with the express-lanes exit.

It may be, says city traffic engineer Eric Widstrand, that some mainline traffic attempts to illegally turn left at the end of the exit just as traffic also is exiting from the express lanes. Both freeway exits carry traffic to Stewart Street.

And, perhaps it was a bit difficult to read a sign that prohibits drivers exiting from the mainline lanes from making a left turn onto Eastlake.

The sign has been adjusted, Widstrand says, and it should now be clear to drivers that they are not supposed to turn onto Eastlake from the mainline freeway offramp while the express- lanes offramp is in operation.