WSDOT: Commutes looking good but weather could foul up streak



SHORELINE, Wash. – The Washington State Department of Transportation believes for most drivers Tuesday morning’s commutes were pretty close to normal.

A handful of snarls made for a rough start – but thanks to good weather and commuters beginning earlier in the morning the Seattle squeeze wasn’t too hard on drivers.

The biggest problem came this morning after the major commute – a dump truck flipped on I-5 and caused 4-mile long backups. Thankfully by then, most everyone had already finished their commute.

But transportation officials worry the worst could be yet to come

“We’ve had a couple good days,” said WSDOT’s Kris Olsen.

The Seattle squeeze hasn’t proven to be the disaster many drivers feared.

“We saw the peak volumes in the mornings start earlier,” said Olsen. “Overall we’re pretty pleased with how the second day has gone.”

WSDOT says south sound drivers heading into the city had the roughest go – travel times northbound were about ten minutes slower than normal.

Miraculously, the truck that flipped on northbound I-5 happened just outside of the normal commute.

Plus, 27 incident response teams swarm across the metro in three different shifts, helping to get messes cleared up in quickly.

“Most of the incidents we saw were scattered out of our peak hour and scattered enough they didn’t compound in the core area,” said Olsen.

But the real challenge comes the rest of this week – when the weather isn’t exactly expected to cooperate.

Bottom line, transportation officials are reminding drivers to not go back to their old ways and instead stick with the changes for at least the next three weeks.