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. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801.
Copyright © 2018, EO Media Group
70s
80s
90s
100s
warm front stationary front
110s
high
low
CORRECTIONS: The East Oregonian works hard to be accurate and sincerely
regrets any errors. If you notice a mistake in the paper, please call 541-966-0818.
Subscriber services:
For mail delivery, online access, vacation stops
or delivery concerns call 1-800-522-0255 ext. 1
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
EZPay
52 weeks
26 weeks
13 weeks
Local home delivery Savings (cover price)
$14.50
41 percent
$173.67
41 percent
$91.86
38 percent
$47.77
36 percent
*EZ Pay = one-year rate with a monthly credit
or debit card/check charge
Single copy price:
$1 Tuesday through Friday, $1.50 Saturday
Circulation Manager:
Bonny Tuller, 541-966-0828
ADVERTISING
Regional Publisher and Revenue Director:
• Christopher Rush
541-278-2669 • crush@eomediagroup.com
Advertising Services:
• Angela Treadwell
541-966-0827 • atreadwell@eastoregonian.com
• Grace Bubar
541-276-2214 • gbubar@eastoregonian.com
Multimedia Consultants:
• Kimberly Macias
541-278-2683 • kmacias@eastoregonian.com
• Jeanne Jewett
541-564-4531 • jjewett@eastoregonian.com
• Dayle Stinson
541-278-2670 • dstinson@eastoregonian.com
• Audra Workman
541-564-4538 • aworkman@eastoregonian.com
Classified & Legal Advertising
1-800-962-2819 or 541-278-2678
classifieds@eastoregonian.com or legals@eastoregonian.com
NEWS
• To submit news tips and press releases:
call 541-966-0818 or email news@eastoregonian.com
• To submit community events, calendar items and Your EO News:
email community@eastoregonian.com or call Tammy Malgesini
at 541-564-4539 or Renee Struthers at 541-966-0818.
• To submit engagements, weddings and anniversaries:
email rstruthers@eastoregonian.com or visit eastoregonian.
com/community/announcements
• To submit sports or outdoors information or tips:
541-966-0838 • sports@eastoregonian.com
Business Office Manager:
541-966-0822
COMMERCIAL PRINTING
Production Manager: Mike Jensen
541-215-0824 • mjensen@eastoregonian.com