A giant claw took the first bites out of the Alaskan Way Viaduct last night. The northbound on-ramp to the viaduct from First Avenue South, just north of Qwest Field, is being removed this weekend. When this phase of the project is completed in April, all viaduct traffic will be diverted to a new surface street and the elevated viaduct from this point south will be taken down.
The current configuration of the southbound and northbound ramps is shown in the diagram below, followed by the new configuration scheduled to open in April.