The driver of the Kia died at Harborview. He was a 49 year-old Burien man. His identity will be released by the Medical Examiner’s Office. The accident is still under investigation and there have been no arrests.

Don’t let the cold weather and holiday lights fool you, WSDOT crews are still hard at work in December. For the next two Saturday nights crews will close six miles of northbound Interstate 5 through south Seattle to install 15 overhead sign bridges.

The new sign bridges will hold overhead electronic signs alerting drivers to reduce their speed or change lanes when there are collisions or backups on the road. The new signs are the latest smarter highway technology aimed at increasing safety and reducing collisions. The $23.8 million project is funded by the Alaskan Way Viaduct program to help keep traffic moving during viaduct demolition and construction.

“Getting these sign bridges up is the first major milestone in making northbound I-5 a safer and smarter highway,” said Craig Stone, WSDOT Toll Division Director. “We’ll spend the rest of the winter and spring installing the high-tech signs before activating them next summer.”

Crews will close all lanes of northbound I-5 from 11:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 5, to 8 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 6, between Boeing Access Road and Spokane Street. I-5 on-ramps in the area will start closing as early as 9 p.m. Crews will again close all lanes of northbound I-5 from 11:30 p.m. Dec. 12 to 8 a.m. Dec. 13 between Boeing Access Road and I-90.

The following ramps will be closed from 9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 5, to 8 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 6:

o Boeing Access Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Way S. to northbound I-5
o Swift Avenue S./S. Graham Street to northbound I-5
o Corson Avenue/S. Michigan Street to northbound I-5

A signed detour will direct drivers to exit at Martin Luther King Way (exit 157) to Airport Way and back onto I-5 via Edgar Martinez Way/SR 519. Drivers should consider taking alternate routes like I-405 or SR 99 to avoid long delays and backups.

Ms. Hutchison has never held public office.  She has never had to struggle with the political realities of governing a complex political entity whose ambits include not only roads and sewers but social services, neighborhoods and law enforcement.  It is difficult to see how her experience on the board of the Seattle Symphony prepared her, in the slightest way, for such a weighty role.

If anyone had any doubt about Ms. Hutchison’s lack of specificity on issues, policies or even advisors, it is worth a listen (available on podcast).  Pressed by the moderator to name a single advisor who she consults, or who she would bring to her administration, she flatly resisted naming anyone, except to say bus drivers.  Her conclusion was “trust me” they will be great people.  I have nothing against bus drivers, but maybe she could have named a couple of the guys that she intends to bring to the Hutchison administration that will “bring people together.”  I’m sorry but calling Hutchison a “lightweight” does not begin to describe the chasm that is her lack of qualification to hold such an important post.  Listen for yourself.

What is particularly disingenuous, is McGinn’s claim that the tunnel option was voted down by Seattle voters.  This is simply not true.  A tunnel option which would have meant tearing down the viaduct and digging up a tunnel was rejected.  The deep bore tunnel that is currently planned would leave the viaduct in place while the tunnel gets built, saving West Seattleites years of aggravating surface detours.  This option was negotiated because it provides the most mobility and least interference while it is getting built.  What McGinn is proposing would set us back a decade and have us revisit the viaduct replacement options once again.  Recall how all this useless process killed the monorail (we had to vote on it three times).  And in the meantime, we have to hope that a seismic event doesn’t make the whole thing hollow by bringing down the decrepit structure.  Busses, bikes and sidewalks, Oh My!

McGinn’s ill-defined plans for the viaduct are enough to nix the guy in my book.  Add to that, the fact that he has never held electoral office, that most of his policy positions lack any specificity and you have a feel-good kind of guy that you might pick for your soccer team, but not a mayor for a major city.  Seattle needs better.  I’m not crazy about Joe Mallahan, but he at least seems considerably more grounded on policies.  We have already had a couple of amateurs embarrass the City.  It’s time to let the grown ups proceed with real policies grounded in reality.