Closed express lanes snarl evening rush

As traffic inched toward and along Interstate 5 Monday afternoon, state Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond defended her decision to leave the highway's express lanes pointing southbound, instead of switching them northbound for the evening commute.

But the move contributed to snarled traffic that was stop-and-go nearly all the way from the University of Washington back to Boeing Field by 4 p.m., according to the Department of Transportation (DOT) regional traffic map. Cars heading toward the highway were moving about a block every half-hour through South Lake Union.

Meanwhile, southbound cars had an easy trip on the express lanes into downtown, until there were late afternoon crashes at Mercer Street, and in the express lanes, that slowed southbound traffic, too.

Hammond said it would have taken so long for the DOT to de-ice the northbound entry and exit ramps during a changeover that the lanes wouldn't have reopened on time.

Usually the transition takes about 50 minutes. State officials say it would have meant an extra 60 to 90 minutes to make the normal changeover Monday afternoon for the northbound drivers.

But the bigger problem was looking ahead, overnight to the Tuesday morning commute, said Chris Christopher, state director of highway maintenance. Workers would have had to dig out snow and ice around the entry and exit gates, taking manpower away from other sites in the Puget Sound region, where about 100 trucks are working, he said.

And if for some reason the lanes couldn't be pointed south by morning, that commute would be much worse, he said.

Kris Olsen, a spokeswoman with the DOT, said Monday afternoon that officials weren't too concerned about affecting the evening commute because it seems many people are out of town for the holidays.

Dave McCormick, assistant regional administrator, said in late afternoon that the northbound traffic was only a bit worse than usual.

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com