We here at the SeaTac Blog are as sick and tired of these ding-dang traffic construction nightmares as you are, so we’re passing along this critical, headache-avoidance advisory:

Avoid driving I-5 Southbound near Southcenter this weekend!

Crews will conduct a rolling slowdown on southbound I-5 near S. 178th Street at 3 a.m. this Sunday morning, March 2nd to install the replacement bridge girder.

S. 178th Street over I-5 has been narrowed back to one lane of alternating traffic using a smart signal that detects traffic back-ups and automatically adjusts signal timing to ease congestion.

S. 178th Street over I-5 will also be completely closed Saturday night from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. the following morning.

On Dec. 13, 2006 a truck struck the S. 178th street overpass. The impact damaged a girder underneath the structure. Bridge inspectors found the bridge safe for drivers but decided to restrict traffic to prevent more damage to the girder.

Crews must replace the girder to return traffic to normal on this highly traveled overpass between Tukwila and SeaTac.

Crews will replace the damaged girder under the S. 178th street overpass. The bridge deck will also be repaired.

Completing repairs will return the overpass to normal capacity for drivers traveling between SeaTac and Tukwila.

Replacing the girder will ensure that the overpass remains safe for drivers on S. 178th and on I-5 in the future.

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SOURCE:

• DOT website

SeaTac-area man Nicholas Francisco’s car was found Monday morning in Federal Way, but he has not.

Meanwhile, the reward for finding him has raised to $15,000, and this video was just released:

A missing SeaTac-area man’s car has been found in Federal Way, according to KING-TV.

Nicholas Francisco, 28, was last seen around 6 p.m. on February 13 as he was leaving work in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood.

His red 1992 Toyota Paseo hatchback was found at the Heritage Condos at 123 S. 340th Street in the Panther Lake area of Federal Way at 10:20 a.m. Monday.

Family members plan to start searching that area and hand out flyers.

Federal Way Police say, as far as they know, Francisco has no connection to the Heritage Condos.

Francisco is about six feet tall. He was last seen wearing a light-blue or off-white button-down short, a black jacket and blue jeans.

There’s a $5,000 reward in the case.

“We just need him to come home,” said Christine Francisco, wife of Nicholas Francisco, who disappeared after leaving his Queen Anne office.

“I am begging everybody, begging everybody to please, please help me find my husband because I cannot live my life without him,” she said.

Deputies also have been pinging his cell phone, but have gotten no response. Nicholas’ co-workers say his cell phone batteries were dead on his last day at work.

Just before he vanished, Nicholas called his wife and promised his 4-year-old daughter, Zea, he’d make Valentine’s Day cookies with her, but never showed.

The Franciscos also have a son, Noah, age 2 1/2, and Christine is pregnant with their third child, due in early October.

“If you can’t find him, these kids won’t have a daddy then,” Christine said in an interview, breaking into tears. “This unborn baby won’t have a daddy.”

In their last phone conversation, from Nicholas’ work phone, he told his wife that he was “signing off on something,” then planned to head home after running an errand at Costco for her.

“He told me he loved me,” she said.

Francisco’s co-workers on Friday combed the streets around Francisco’s work and retraced his route home, hoping to find some sign of the missing man.

“Literally there is no place to search,” said King County sheriff’s spokesman John Urquhart. “What we have to do is our investigative work and try to track him either through cell phone or bank records.”

“It’s not normal for him to make stops, have hangouts or go visit anyone else,” said one co-worker. “He’s a man who comes home after work.”

Christine Francisco said there has been no activity in Nicholas’ e-mail or bank account since he vanished.

Francisco stands about 6 feet tall and was last seen wearing a light blue and white button-down shirt, a plain black jacket and a pair of blue jeans.

Anyone with information on his whereabouts is urged call 911 immediately.

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SOURCES:

• KING-TV
• KOMO Radio

SeaTac – Unsanitary sheets and mattresses forced state officials to shut down a SeaTac motel early Wednesday morning, investigators said.

The New West Motel, located at 21450 International Boulevard, violated construction, maintenance, electrical, fire and safety codes and is operating under unsanitary conditions, according to the Washington State Department of Health.

Conditions in the motel rooms include dangerous wiring installations and broken and boarded-up windows that would prevent guests from escaping a fire.

Other conditions include mold and unsanitary mattresses, bed covers, sheets and mattress pads.

The state was forced to suspend the license of the motel after learning of these violations.

The motel must be vacated by Feb. 15 and may not offer accommodations until a hearing is held.

It has 20 days to request a hearing and contest these charges.

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SOURCE:

• KIRO-TV

SEATTLE – Bail was set at $250,000 Friday for a Seattle man suspected of raping a 12-year-old runaway and forcing her into prostitution while her family tried to find her.

Known as “Smoke Bone” on the streets, the suspect was observed following a juvenile prostitute two years ago in SeaTac, and may have persuaded two teenage girls working for him to rob a man at knifepoint in 2006, according to a law enforcement source.

On Jan. 9, he befriended the runaway on a sidewalk in Seattle and persuaded her to stay with him. They rode a bus to White Center, where he had sex with her for the first of several times. Within days, he had persuaded her to become a prostitute for him, even instructing how much to charge for sex acts, court documents say.

One night they rode a bus to Federal Way, where she performed oral sex for money. She handed most of the money to the suspect, but was allowed to keep a small portion for food, according to court documents.

The suspect, who has numerous convictions and 10 warrants for his arrest, was arrested Thursday after an officer found him near an apartment where he’d been staying with another girl in West Seattle. He faces charges of first-degree child rape and promoting prostitution.

“I think the detectives were a little shocked at her age,” Seattle police spokesman Mark Jamieson said. “You just think about what if she hadn’t been found.”

The Seattle P-I is not naming the suspect because he has not yet been charged.

The girl’s family had reported her missing when she didn’t return home on Jan. 9. Police had no luck finding her until another woman who knew the suspect called the girl’s legal guardian, after finding her number in a backpack that contained schoolbooks, notebooks and a pair of jeans, according to court documents.

The victim and the suspect had been staying with the woman at a Seattle address, court documents say.

The woman later told police she knew of other young girls the suspect had pimped out for profit, according to court documents.

Once the girl’s family was told of the girl’s whereabouts, her uncle went looking for her Sunday and found her downtown with the suspect.

The uncle confronted the suspect and he ran, court documents say.

The girl reluctantly went with her uncle, but later told police that she “would not stay with him or her guardian and would leave at the first opportunity,” according to a police report.

The victim was taken to Children’s Hospital and Regional Medial Center, where she underwent a rape examination.

In 2005, the P-I detailed how police and social workers were alarmed by a growing number of young girls, some as young as 11, who had been caught in street prostitution. Seattle is one of several hub cities on a network.

The P-I’s report detailed how predatory men often charm and befriend young girls by buying them clothes, showering them with attention, and offering them places to stay. Some were foster children; others ran away from middle-class or upper-class homes.

They soon find themselves emotionally attached and asked to repay their debt by selling themselves. Others are coerced with promises that the money will buy the girl and her pimp a better life.

Researchers estimate that nationally, one of every three kids on the streets will be solicited for sex.

“It does lend a good argument to why we do enforce these laws and have a vice unit, because it’s not a victimless crime. You have somebody who was being raped and forced into prostitution,” Jamieson, the police spokesman, said.

Three years ago, the King County Sheriff’s Office investigated the suspect after two girls, ages 17 and 15, robbed a man at knifepoint outside a Walgreens store on Aurora Avenue North in Shoreline. The girls forced the man to withdraw $40 from an ATM and were seen giving the money to the suspect, a law enforcement source said.

The case was referred to the Prosecutor’s Office, which declined to file charges because of a lack of evidence.

The following year, a deputy patrolling state Route 99 in SeaTac observed a 17-year-old prostitute roaming the street and stopped her.

The deputy noted that the suspect was walking close behind her. Both were interviewed, but police lacked evidence to arrest either one.

The deputy reported that the two were staying at a nearby motel.

SOURCE:

• Seattle P-I