Seattle weekend traffic and transit: St. Patrick’s Day is coming

What’s blocking up traffic this weekend—and how to ride transit to it (or around it)

By Sarah Anne Lloyd@sarahannelloyd Mar 15, 2018, 4:49pm PDT

Another weekend, another whole list of things that could disrupt getting around. Some of these events might be things you’re doing, too—maybe getting festive for a weekend St. Patrick’s Day.

We’ve combed through the alerts and advisories from both the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) and the Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to deliver transit-friendly solutions for your weekend outings.

Some of this weekend’s advisories—and transit-oriented alternate routes to events—are listed below.

Weekend events: St. Patrick’s Day

It’s St. Patrick’s Day on Saturday, so Kells’s block of Post Alley—between Stewart and Virginia—will be closed off from Friday morning until the wee hours of Sunday morning for some extreme revelry (that costs $20 to get into and is only for those 21 and up). Any bus that gets you downtown will get you to the Pike Place Market area.

Friday night, there’ll be a laying of a green stripe down the middle of Fourth Avenue downtown from James to Pike to mark the route of the St. Patrick’s Day Parade from 7:00 to 7:30—if you’re not watching, maybe steer around to alternate routes. This is a long stretch of Fourth that takes up the majority of downtown, so any bus that goes downtown will get you there (although light rail might be faster—get off at Pioneer Square, University Street, or Westlake).

The actual parade happens Saturday midday—same route, same closures, same bus directions—from 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. although staging starts at 10 a.m.

Farther north, roads are still closed, but for, of course, a run. The St. Patrick’s Day Dash runs from Mercer Street to 5th Avenue North to Cedar Street to 4th Avenue to Denny Way to 2nd Ave North, and closes streets down Saturday morning from 8 a.m. to noon. A bunch of buses go to Seattle Center, including the 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 13, and Rapidride D.

Saturday and Sunday, there’s a booze and brunch festival called Bacon, Eggs, and Kegs at Centurylink Field. Link light Rail can be your designated driver (take your pick of the International District or Stadium stations), or the First Hill Streetcar, or one of a ton of bus routes from Metro, Community Transit, and Sound Transit.

Road work and bus service changes

Service changes—mostly timing—kick on on the 545, 554, and 590 this weekend.

Because of that St. Patrick’s Day run and parade on Saturday morning, a whole bunch of buses are being rerouted: the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 21, 24, 26, 27, 28, 33, 40, 47, 49, 62, 70, 131, and 132, plus the C, D, and E BRT lines. Some buses are rerouted in Kirkland for another run, too.

Other buses are being rerouted for construction, including the 12 and 60 off Madison Street, and the 101 and 150 in the Sodo Busway.

Seventh Avenue is closed for street improvements between Pike and Pine, and will continue to be closed through Saturday.

Crews will be working on the southbound Interstate 405 ramp to southbound State Route 167 and Rainier Avenue South on Friday night, leading to lane closures on Friday and a new configuration as early as Saturday morning—so be prepared for slowdowns there.

Note: We put immediate and new closures in this section, but not every single planned street closure appears here. Explore all 100 active SDOT projects, many of which involve street and lane closures, here. Here are Sound Transit rider alerts; here are King County Metro rider alerts.