Avoid Thanksgiving Travel Pain In Puget Sound With These Tips

BELLEVUE, WA - Whether you're headed to grandma's house or grandma is heading to you, travel is going to be - as usual - very busy in Puget Sound during the Thanksgiving week. Luckily, local travel authorities have tips about how to avoid or at least better handle the worst congestion this week.

Close to 1 million people will filter through Sea-Tac this week, with about 900,000 between Tuesday and next Monday. Local highways will be just as packed, and snow expected in the Cascades and the Apple Cup will only add to that congestion.

Here are some tips from Sea-Tac officials about how to deal with busy airport travel:

If you're dropping someone off, try using the arrivals terminal. It's often less busy than the departures terminal, and it's practically the same thing. Better yet, drop travelers off at a light rail station and let them breeze to the terminal totally traffic-free.

"In the morning, drop off passengers on the Arrivals level. In the evenings, arrange to meet your passengers on the Departures level. Going opposite gets you out of the traffic crunch. Another example, many arriving passengers do not check bags and are already on the Departures level when they exit, easy to pick up," airport officials advise.

If you can, drive to the airport from the south. That means avoiding SR 518, the main highway route to Sea-Tac. As an alternate to SR 518 coming from Seattle or the Eastside, you can hop on Tukwila International Boulevard at the end of SR 99 in Tukwila and head south to the airport entrance. You can also keep heading south along I-5 and get off at the 188th Street exit to Pacific Highway.

There are a couple of tech solutions for airport travel. Download the Sea-Tac app to remotely check arrival and departure status, security lines, and even report lost baggage. You can also get text alerts from the airport by texting "Update" to (206) 347-8045.

Here are some things WSDOT wants drivers to be aware of this week:

For I-90 drivers, the heaviest traffic times will be Wednesday afternoon and Sunday afternoon. Meanwhile, I-5 between Olympia and Tacoma will be a nightmare pretty much all day Wednesday, with heavy traffic expected 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Check WSDOT travel time estimates here.

For anyone headed to Pullman for the Apple Cup, be aware that there's a detour along SR 26 near Othello that could add up to 15 minutes to your trip.

Mountain passes: Both Chinook (SR 410) and Cayuse (SR 123) passes will close at 8 a.m. Tuesday for the winter. And remember, Snoqualmie Pass will get some snow this week. At the moment, SR 20 through North Cascades National Park remains open.

Also this week, some I-405 ramps in Bellevue will be closed for work related to light rail. Read more about those closures here.

Patch file photo by Neal McNamara