CHOKEPOINTS
Major milestones ahead for Puget Sound region construction projects
Jun 14, 2022, 6:39 AM | Updated: 10:43 am
The Main Street Bridge has closed in Bellevue, and now it’s time to take it down.
To do that, the Washington Department of Transportation needs to close all lanes of I-405 through Bellevue. That is going to happen this weekend. All lanes of 405 will be closed from Friday night until Monday morning. Northbound drivers will be detoured off the freeway at SE 8th Street. Southbound drivers will be detoured off the freeway at NE 4th Street.
WSDOT’s Craig Smiley said this has the potential to cause huge delays.
“On a typical Saturday, about 190,000 vehicles use that area through downtown Bellevue and about 162,000 on an average Sunday,” he said.
You will need to do what you can to avoid this corridor all weekend. Expect to see a lot of extra traffic on I-90 and State Route 520 across the lake and on I-5 in general.
The good news for that detour route is that Revive I-5 is taking another weekend off. This is to celebrate Juneteenth. There will be no southbound I-5 lane reductions this weekend. That work will return in ten days.
Why is the state doing this? The piers of the Main Street Bridge are in the way of the ongoing widening project. This needs to happen so that a lane can be added in both directions of the freeway, which are part of the express toll lane expansion.
Here’s an update on our favorite and most senior construction project. The 20-plus years of work in the Tacoma area.
The dates for completing the work are coming into better focus. We could be entirely wrapped up in about a month. The HOV lanes are scheduled to open in the middle of July, but WSDOT’s Cara Mitchell said the first thing to do is get the northbound lanes into their final alignment. “We think that’s going to happen before the 4th of July, but there’s a lot of weather-dependent work,” she said.
If the weather cooperates, the northbound lanes will be put into final alignment the weekend of June 24. All northbound lanes are scheduled to close at the city center exit from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. both nights.
When finished, both directions of I-5 will have four general-purpose lanes, an HOV lane, and two new auxiliary lanes connecting on and off-ramps there.
If that gets done on time, all that’s left is to move some barriers, install signs, and stripe in the HOV lanes, and this project is done.
The state will also reconsider the 50-mile-per-hour limit through Tacoma once this is all done. It might go back up to 60 mph.
@kirotraffic Sully’s Chokepoints on the Road – taking you to I-405 in Bellevue, with the 5 month closure of a busy overpass. #bellevue #bellevuewa #bellevuewashington #bellevuesquare #seattle #seattletiktok #bothell #bothellwa #washingtoncheck #washingtontraffic #freeway #urbanplanning #construction #demolition #freewayclosure #traffic #trafficnews #fyp #foryoupage #trending #chokepoint #redmond #microsoft #downtownbellevue #localnews #localradio #radio #media #newsyoucanuse #chrissullivan #sully #trafficjam ♬ Highway to Hell – AC/DC
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