Traffic Will Be Very, Very Bad Around Puget Sound This Weekend

BELLEVUE, WA - Here's a recipe for traffic nightmare stew:

• 1 part extremely hot weather
• 17 parts construction closures
• 321 parts big sporting events and festivals
• A dash of light rail service disruption

Mix it all together across a network of aging highways, bridges, ferries, and roads full of chokepoints, potholes, and unforeseen accidents and voila! It'll taste so good you'll want to just stay home all weekend.

From north to south, east to west, Puget Sound is going to be a tough place to travel this weekend. Not only is it the first weekend of summer - predicted to be the hottest so far in 2017 with a heat advisory in effect beginning Saturday - but there are a number of construction projects and special events going on that will affect just about every road in the region. Here are the highlights broken down by road:

I-5

• Northbound lanes at 10 p.m. Friday will be reduced to two between SR 516 (Des Moines) and the Southcenter Mall area in Kent. Last weekend, traffic was backed up as far as Federal Way (if not farther)
• Northbound lanes at the Ship Canal Bridge in Seattle will be reduced from 2 a.m. to 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday for repair work
• In Tacoma, exit 133 on both sides of the highway will experience lane reductions
• On Sunday, the southbound I-5 off-ramp to Union Street will be closed from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. for Seattle Pride

I-90

• On and off-ramps will be closed at Bellevue Way all day Saturday and Sunday for light rail construction
• Between North Bend and Ellensburg, crews will be working through the weekend on various construction projects - expect delays!

SR 167

• The SR 167 on-ramp to southbound I-5 will close from 10 p.m. to 8:30 a.m. Saturday

SR 16

• As has been the case all week, eastbound SR 16 to northbound I-5 will be closed overnight for construction work. Drivers will be detoured using southbound I-5 and the south 56th Street interchange.

SR 520

• Westbound SR 520 will be reduced to one lane between 148th Avenue Northeast in Bellevue and I-5 in Seattle beginning at 11:59 p.m. Saturday and lasting until 6 a.m. Sunday.

U.S. 2

• Beginning Sunday night, a single lane in either direction of US 2/West Stevens Avenue between Fern Bluff Road and 10th Street will be closed from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. nightly. A pilot car will alternate traffic through the open lane.

Link Light Rail

• Due to I-90 overpass inspections, from the start of service, Saturday June 24, until approximately 11 a.m. Link will not operate between SODO and Westlake Stations. Trains will operate between Angle Lake and SODO and UW and Westlake with Route 97 Link Shuttle buses serving all stations between SODO and Westlake. Riders will need to switch between the bus and train at Westlake and SODO to complete their journeys.

Special Events

Seattle Pride 2017: There will be various Pride events all weekend. On Saturday, PrideFest will happen in the vicinity of Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill. The massive Pride parade kicks off at 11 a.m. Sunday in downtown Seattle and travels to the Seattle Center. About 200,000 are expected at the parade!

Mariners: Games at 7:10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday; Sunday's game starts at 1:10 p.m. More than 30,000 people expected at each game.

Roger Waters: The Pink Floyd co-genius will be at the Tacoma Dome at 8 p.m. Wish you were here, not sitting in traffic.

Paradiso Festival: Large digital music festival at The Gorge happening all day Friday and Saturday.

Bellevue Strawberry Festival: Happening all day Saturday at Crossroads Park.

Greenwood Car Show: Happening all day Saturday; will close Greenwood Avenue north of 80th Street, and thousands are expected to attend.

Did we miss a festival or closure? Email neal.mcnamara@patch.com.

Image via WSDOT