To ease the crush of commuters expected when lanes of Interstate 5 are closed for repairs later this month, the Elliott Bay water taxi is adding a morning trip to its schedule, plus a second shuttle bus August 13 to August 29.

King County Metro also applied to the U.S. Coast Guard for permission to increase the number of passengers the water taxi can carry on each sailing, from the current 149 passengers to 250. New global positioning system equipment must be installed on the Sightseer, the vessel otherwise known as the Elliott Bay water taxi, to gain Coast Guard certification.

The I-5 lane closures are scheduled to start Aug. 10 and end Aug. 29. Expansion joints in the northbound lanes must be replaced and a mile-long stretch of road surface has to be repaved. Northbound traffic frequently will be restricted to two or three lanes.

Constricted I-5 traffic is expected to spill over onto streets, highways and bridges during the August repair period so Metro wants to increase the carrying capacity of the water taxi.

Currently there are four morning-commute sailings from West Seattle to downtown Monday through Friday. Metro plans to add another morning run scheduled to leave the Seacrest Park dock at 6:10 a.m. on work days.

Metro van No. 773 serves as the water taxi shuttle bus, providing free rides to and from Seacrest Park, where the water taxi arrives and departs. Usually one shuttle bus continually travels from Harbor Avenue to the Alaska Junction, the Admiral business district, Alki and back to Harbor Avenue.

During the I-5 repair work, a second shuttle bus will be assigned to the route to help get passengers to and from the water taxi.