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NORTHWEST East Oregonian A2 Thursday, January 10, 2019 Seattle highway shutdown spawns hashtags, dread Officials predict most painful traffic in city’s history By LISA BAUMANN Associated Press SEATTLE — A major thoroughfare for commut- ers along downtown Seattle’s waterfront is set to shut down for good Friday, ushering in what officials say will be one of the most painful traf- fic periods in the history of the booming Pacific North- west city. The aging, double-decker, 2.2-mile Alaskan Way Via- duct, which carries about 90,000 vehicles each day, will be replaced by a four-lane tunnel. Officials say tearing down the viaduct, damaged in a 2001 earthquake, will allow Seattle to reimagine its waterfront with new parks, paths and other amenities. But the new tunnel won’t open until about three weeks after the viaduct closes as workers realign the highway into it. A mélange of other construction projects will further constrain traffic in the hilly city surrounded by water, already known for its population growth and traf- fic woes. Washington’s transpor- tation agency on its website has a clock counting down to AP Photo/Elaine Thompson In this photo taken Thursday, Jan. 3, rush hour northbound Highway 99 traffic backs-up while heading toward the Alaskan Way Viaduct just ahead as a sign overhead advises of an upcoming closure of the roadway in Seattle. the viaduct closure, which it says will be the longest major highway closure the Puget Sound region has ever seen. The period between the viaduct’s closure, scheduled for 10 p.m. Friday, and the state Route 99 tunnel opening is already being dubbed the “Seattle Squeeze.” “It is dramatic,” said Heather Marx, director of Downtown Mobility for the Seattle Department of Trans- portation. “Everyone trav- eling in the region will be impacted,” she said, refer- ring to people going to and through the Seattle metropol- itan area. City, King County and state officials have been doing outreach and work- ing to ensure things run as smoothly as possible, like authorities did ahead of Los Angeles’ “Carmageddon” freeway shutdown in 2011. Many feared that dayslong bridge project on one of the region’s most critical free- ways would lead to epic traf- fic jams, but it cruised to a finish ahead of schedule with Forecast for Pendleton Area TODAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY MONDAY Times of sun and clouds Partly sunny and cooler Mostly sunny Partly sunny Chilly with clouds and sun 52° 34° 44° 27° PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST 42° 27° 40° 26° 40° 26° HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST 51° 33° 44° 31° 42° 29° 41° 29° 40° 28° OREGON FORECAST ALMANAC Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows. PENDLETON through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW TEMP. Seattle Olympia 53/44 45/32 45/31 Longview Kennewick Walla Walla 53/35 Lewiston 55/42 50/33 Astoria 55/43 Pullman Yakima 43/32 54/37 52/35 Portland Hermiston 57/42 The Dalles 51/33 Salem Corvallis 56/38 Yesterday Normals Records La Grande 45/33 PRECIPITATION John Day Eugene Bend 59/38 48/28 45/31 Ontario 46/29 Caldwell Burns 39° 33° 40° 28° 66° (1953) -10° (1974) 24 hours ending 3 p.m. Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Last year to date Normal year to date Albany 57/38 0.14" 0.18" 0.36" 0.18" 0.26" 0.36" WINDS (in mph) 47/30 42/20 0.03" 0.12" 0.51" 0.12" 0.32" 0.51" through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW TEMP. Pendleton 43/27 59/39 24 hours ending 3 p.m. Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Last year to date Normal year to date HERMISTON Enterprise 52/34 48/35 35° 31° 41° 27° 67° (1990) -18° (1909) PRECIPITATION Moses Lake 56/37 Aberdeen 43/30 39/32 Tacoma Yesterday Normals Records Spokane Wenatchee 55/44 Today Boardman Pendleton Medford 53/35 Fri. WSW 3-6 SSW 6-12 NNE 4-8 NE 4-8 SUN AND MOON Klamath Falls 44/27 Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019 Sunrise today Sunset tonight Moonrise today Moonset today 7:35 a.m. 4:31 p.m. 10:17 a.m. 9:12 p.m. First Full Last New Jan 13 Jan 20 Jan 27 Feb 4 NATIONAL EXTREMES no significant problems. During the “Seattle Squeeze,” school bus driv- ers will start their days ear- lier, and officials are advis- ing commuters to work from home or adjust their work hours if they can. Those who can’t are being asked to walk, bike, join a carpool or use transit including buses, light rail or water taxis — all to avoid driving solo into down- town during peak commute times. Tad Donaghe, of West Seattle, usually travels by bus to his downtown job at Nord- strom but has worked out an alternate route involving light rail and water taxi to avoid the anticipated crush of driv- ers switching to buses during the closure. “I tried out my #Via- doom commute tonight,” he tweeted Monday, using a popular hashtag related to the closure. Donaghe told The Associ- ated Press that route was rela- tively “lovely.” And although the new commute will cost more and may take longer than the 80 minutes it lasted Monday, his employer pays for his transit so he doesn’t mind. “No matter what, it was infinitely nicer than if I had driven home,” Donaghe said. “I quit driving for a com- mute because mass transit is infinitely less stressful.” The growth of tech giant Amazon and a popu- lation boom has spawned an abundance of construc- tion in the Seattle area in recent years with new hous- ing, light rail expansion and infrastructure development already straining commut- ers’ patience. Once the tun- nel opens, removing the via- duct will take months, which will be followed by the cre- ation of the new downtown waterfront area. Large pri- vate projects also in the city’s core include the renovation of a sports arena that will host professional hockey and an addition to the Washington State Convention Center. “We’ve added 85,000 new people to the county in just the last two years, so these are the kinds of public spaces and destinations and mobility we need to support our growing region,” Meghan Shepard, with Seattle’s Transportation Department, said in a city video posted on YouTube. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan recently announced legislation that would com- plete funding of the new waterfront area, which includes 20 acres of public spaces and an elevated path- way connecting the water- front to the historic Pike Place Market and downtown. “After the many years of tunnel construction, the via- duct will finally be coming down, and work on the water- front of the future will begin,” Durkan said in a statement. The viaduct was built in 1953 and weakened in the earthquake. While it was repaired and strengthened, the aging roadway remained vulnerable to earthquakes. City and state officials and others battled for years over how best to replace it, with the tunnel plan, now esti- mated at $3.3 billion, cho- sen by former Gov. Chris Gregoire and state lawmakers in 2009. Audit finds racial disparity in outcomes at Portland schools PORTLAND (AP) — There was an achievement gap of more than 50 percent between white students and black students in Oregon’s largest school district, Port- land Public Schools, accord- ing to an audit released Wednesday by the state Secretary of State’s office found. The yearlong audit also found similar achieve- ment discrepancies for His- panic, Native American and low-income students. The report blamed the results on the fact that schools with the most vulnerable stu- dents faced chronic turnover among principals and teach- ers; that the district doesn’t monitor its spending on pro- grams to help those students closely enough and that it spends more on support ser- vices such as administration, substitute teachers, benefits and school buses than it does on instruction. Teachers in the dis- trict’s high-poverty schools were absent an average of one-month out of a nine- month school year and most absences fell on Fridays and Mondays. Not all of the teachers are always replaced by substitutes, leading to uneven instruction, the audit found. The audit found an achievement gap between white and black students of 53 percent, versus a state- wide average discrepancy of 29 percent. Nineteen percent of black third-graders met or exceeded the standard in Portland schools and 34 per- cent of Hispanic third-grad- ers did so. “Portland Public Schools has more funding per stu- dent than all Oregon peer districts and more than many national peer districts, yet management challenges and an inconsistent focus on performance are hurting stu- dents and teachers, Secre- tary of State Dennis Rich- ardson said in announcing the findings. The report also flagged excessive spending on retirement parties and gifts, including $13,000 to rent a Portland Spirit river cruise ship and money spent on crystal retirement gifts and leis shipped from Hawaii. Portland Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero told reporters it’s important to provide extra training, sup- port, and pay to principals and teams of strong teach- ers at high-needs schools so they will stick around. “This is going to take some work. But it’s work we’ve already embarked on,” he told The Oregonian/ OregonLive. Guerrero said he had “begun the conversation” with the teachers union. Leaders of that union refused to speak with state auditors. School board member Julia Brim-Edwards and board chair Rita Moore both took issue with the state’s audit, contending it gives an outdated picture of their district, the newspaper said. Guerrero’s arrival and their election to the school board are part of a change in direc- tion, they said. Meanwhile, Portland schools compare favorably to other districts both in and out of the state when it comes to white students who aren’t low-income. Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states) High 78° in Marathon, Fla. Low -20° in Boulder, Wyo. NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY Remains ID’d as girl in SUV that went over cliff SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Human remains found on a Northern California beach belong to one of the six adopted children killed along with their parents when their mother intentionally drove their SUV off a cliff, author- ities said Wednesday. The Mendocino County sheriff’s department had trou- ble identifying the human remains found shortly after the March 26 crash until the biological mother of Hannah Hart, 16, called the depart- ment from Mobile, Alabama, in October. She was respond- ing to a request from investi- gators for family members to come forward and help with the identification process. The woman’s DNA sam- ple matched the teen’s remains, the sheriff’s depart- ment said. Only the remains of 15-year-old Devonte Hart have not been found. None- theless, the sheriff’s depart- ment says it believes all six children died in the crash. Devonte, who was black, drew national attention after he was photographed in tears while hugging a white police officer at a 2014 protest. The sheriff’s department said Jennifer Hart, 38, was drunk when she intentionally drove her vehicle off Califor- nia’s scenic Highway 1 and over a cliff into the ocean about 155 miles north of San Francisco. Investigators are still trying to determine a motive. Toxicology results showed that Hart’s wife Sarah Hart, 38, and several of the chil- dren ages 12 through 19 had large amounts of a drug that can cause drowsiness in their systems. Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day. -10s -0s 0s showers t-storms 10s rain 20s flurries 30s snow 40s 50s ice 60s cold front E AST O REGONIAN — Founded Oct. 16, 1875 — 211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton 541-276-2211 333 E. Main St., Hermiston 541-567-6211 Office hours: Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed major holidays EastOregonian.com To subscribe, call 1-800-522-0255 or go online to EastOregonian.com and click on ‘Subscribe’ East Oregonian (USPS 164-980) is published daily except Sunday, Monday and postal holidays, by the EO Media Group, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801. Periodicals postage paid at Pendleton, OR. Postmaster: send address changes to East Oregonian, 211 S.E. 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