There’s a good chance that if you live in Seattle, you’ve been stuck in the Mercer Mess.

Mercer Street was an interim solution that has become a 40-year problem. Its tangled streets are the legacy of a temporary route that was never put right.

Today, over 80,000 vehicles travel the Mercer couplet daily. That number will increase as Mercer becomes the main thoroughfare to the northern portal of the new tunnel.

There is a solution. Stakeholders from civic and neighborhood groups, businesses, freight haulers, transportation companies, the Port of Seattle, Seattle Center, and pedestrian and bicycle coalitions have all come together to develop a solution. Their recommendation is a straight-shot Mercer that connects I-5 to the waterfront.

And this time, it has been designed as a permanent solution that connects to the new tunnel. The City Council has repeatedly backed a two-way Mercer with overwhelming votes of support because doing nothing is not an option.

The history is clear—Mercer doesn’t work.

The future is clear —

If Mercer isn’t redesigned before cars come pouring out of the new tunnel, congestion will get much worse, creating a ripple effect extending for miles in every direction.

The solution is clear —

A straight-shot from I-5 to Elliot at the waterfront.