Date:  Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Contact: Kris Olsen, WSDOT Communications, 206-440-4475

Crews respond to more than 700 incidents in nine days

SHORELINE - While U.S. Olympic medalists Apolo Ohno, Lindsey Vonn and Bode Miller speed to glory during the Winter Games in Vancouver, B.C., WSDOT incident response and maintenance crews are putting on an equally impressive performance.

“We have already cleared hundreds of disabled and abandoned vehicles, collisions and debris along our highways during the first week of the Olympics,” said WSDOT Assistant Regional Administrator for Maintenance and Operations Dave McCormick. “We are doing everything we can to keep the roads clear and drivers’ trips to Vancouver, B.C. trouble free.”

WSDOT prepared for the Winter Games by doubling the number of incident response crews patrolling Western Washington highways between Sea-Tac and Canada. As a result, crews have had twice as many contacts with drivers compared to last year, responding to more than 700 incidents in the days leading up to and during the first week of the games.

Our crews have put up some impressive numbers:

Interstate 5 between Sea-Tac and the Canadian border

                                Feb. 9 -18, 2010                      Feb. 10 – 19, 2009

Abandoned Vehicles          119                                                  59
Debris                                  73                                                  39
Disabled Vehicles               399                                                196
Fatality Collision                     0                                                    2
Injury Collision                     12                                                    8
Non-injury Collision              54                                                  41
Other                                   63                                                   24
Police Activity                         0                                                     1
Total                                   720                                                 370

In the Bellingham area, we have up to three incident response trucks roaming the I-5 corridor between Bow Hill Rest Area and the Canadian border daily from 5:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. In Mount Vernon, we have doubled the number of incident response trucks on the road and extended their hours as well. We also beefed up the number of incident response trucks in Everett and Seattle.

Besides incident response staff, WSDOT maintenance and operations staff throughout the region are on alert to handle any situation that comes up during the Olympics. WSDOT traffic management centers in Bellingham and Shoreline are monitoring traffic conditions and providing traffic information on conditions at the border and in the I-5 corridor.

Know before you go

Drivers can help keep our highways moving by planning ahead and allowing extra time. WSDOT has a variety of tools available to drivers, including resources for drivers headed to the Olympic Games.

Travel essentials include:

• Seattle traffic map and cameras: www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/seattle/
• Bellingham traffic map and cameras: www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/bellingham/
• Mount Vernon traffic map and cameras: www.wsdot.wa.gov/Traffic/cameras/mtvernonstanwood.aspx
• Map of border crossing routes: www.wsdot.wa.gov/Congestion/border/Map.htm
• Border cameras and wait times: www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/border/
• Wait times via text message: www.wsdot.wa.gov/inform/twitter
• Traveler information Web site: www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/
• Telephone hotline: 5-1-1 
                                        
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  WSDOT keeps people, businesses and the economy moving by operating and improving the state's transportation systems. To learn more about what we're doing, go to www.wsdot.wa.gov/news for pictures, videos, news and blogs. Real time traffic information is available at www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/ or by dialing 5-1-1.
  

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