Seattle road project to clean up 'Mercer Mess'

Officials formally launched a solution to more than 40 years of gummed-up Seattle traffic Wednesday as prominent politicans gathered for a rain-soaked groundbreaking to straighten out the city's "Mercer Mess."

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, who faces a tough challenge in November from Republican Dino Rossi, stood with U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Gov. Chris Gregoire and Rep. Jim McDermott on a four-block stretch that has been leveled for the $161 million project, which includes $30 million in federal stimulus money.

Much of the event was devoted to praising Murray. Rossi has repeatedly said the nearly $800 billion stimulus bill that Murray helped champion in the Senate is a failure that hasn't produced jobs.

LaHood, a Republican and former Illinois congressman, said the Mercer work and 14,000 other transportation projects across the nation are proof of the bill's success and wouldn't have occurred without proponents like Murray and McDermott.

"We would not be standing here today if it weren't for your courageous representatives in Congress," he said.

Democrats Gregoire, McDermott and Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn also devoted much of their speeches to commending Murray. Gregoire said the Mercer Street work would create 1,200 construction jobs, part of what she said were 24,000 transportation jobs statewide on projects receiving stimulus dollars.

"I don't think people in this city and this state really understand how lucky we are to have Patty Murray as the chair of the committee that works directly with Ray on transportation projects," McDermott said.

Murray, who leads the Senate Transportation Appropriations Committee, said she created the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER program, to continue funding projects such as the Mercer construction.

"For those folks out there who are saying that the economic stimulus and the work we've done hasn't created jobs, ask anyone here in a hard hat what it means to them to be able to get a paycheck because of projects just like this," she said.

The convoluted pattern of one-way streets between the Interstate 5 off-ramps at South Lake Union and Highway 99 are used daily by about 80,000 drivers and pedestrians, most forced to inch along in traffic or dart across clogged streets. Long freeway backups are common because of the Mercer corridor's link to the sports and arts venues at the Seattle Center and the neighborhoods north of downtown.

City officials say the problem has worsened with the nearby addition of thousands of workers for medical research facilities, including the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, plus hundreds of condominiums and blocks of new shops and office space for companies such as Amazon.com Inc.

The Mercer project will channel traffic into one arterial and refurbish streets in the adjacent neighborhoods. The work will include bike lanes, new crosswalks, room for the city's streetcar line and extensive landscaping.