SEATTLE — Construction work that began in July on the 107-year-old Ballard Bridge and 15th Avenue will continue throughout the month of October. The Seattle Department of Transportation will close off the Ballard Bridge the first three weekends of October from 10 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday.
With nearly 60,000 cars crossing the bridge daily, planning ahead is essential. Tony Baranco learned that the hard way this past weekend when SDOT had the bridge closed.
"My normal commute is 10 minutes and it took me almost two hours to get to work yesterday going into Ballard," Baranco said. "It was backed up the moment you got on to Nickerson from 15th and it just crawled the entire team."
SDOT's 15th Ave W/NW and Ballard Bridge Paving and Safety Project includes paving, maintenance and preservation work on the bridge and ADA and sidewalk improvements on the east side of 15th Ave Northwest at Northwest 57th St. and Northwest 56th St.
Baranco said October is going to be a tough month for Ballard shops that thrive on weekend traffic.
"Not having accessibility for people to get to our restaurant on the weekend is going to be brutal," he said. "I'll leave an hour earlier than I thought I would have to before just to make it to work. If people could just abide by the common decency rules, which is zipper [merging], allowing one car to go past you, no more than that and not be frustrated with each other. No one's enjoying it. We just got to keep our heads cool."