Upcoming holiday weekends can’t escape Revive I-5 construction
Jun 23, 2022, 6:38 AM
(Sounder Bruce via Flickr Creative Commons)
(Sounder Bruce via Flickr Creative Commons)
The awful, wet weather this spring has put the Revive I-5 project so far behind schedule that holiday weekends are now in play for lane closures.
There were supposed to be five weekends off when the work to replace 35 old expansion joints on southbound I-5 began earlier this year: Memorial Day, University of Washington graduation, Juneteenth, 4th of July, and Labor Day.
But the Washington State Department of Transportation’s Amy Moreno said the weather put them so far behind, that those weekends off are changing. “We’ve had two weekends of work so far, and we had two weekends we had to postpone because of rain, and one weekend we had to postpone for some working going on I-405,” she said. “We’ve had three weekends of postponement, so at this point, we have decided to add the 4th of July weekend as a construction weekend to the schedule.”
So there will be lane reductions on southbound I-5 over that weekend. What about Labor Day?
“We’re just saying at this point that we plan to work nearly every weekend for the rest of the summer,” Moreno said.
Expect weekend traffic delays as Seattle’s Revive I-5 project looks to finish up
So WSDOT will make the call on Labor Day weekend a little later, and summer does mean working well into September.
To make things a little easier over the 4th of July, Moreno said the work will begin later in the evening on Friday to allow most of the traffic to get out of town.
As for this weekend, the southbound lane closures will be on the right side of the freeway from I-90 to Spokane Street, and that will impact the collector-distributor lanes. “All vehicles using the collector-distributor need to use one of the exits,” Moreno said. “Travelers will not be able to rejoin I-5 and also ramps from I-90 to I-5 will be closed as well.”
Again, that is to southbound I-5. You will still be able to go from 90 to northbound I-5.
What about the thousands of people heading to Seattle for the Pride Parade on Sunday?
“We have asked our contractor if there’s any way they can get done early on Sunday,” Moreno said. “We would love to open up early and provide more room on the roadway for people to come out to Pride.”
That will be a last-minute decision. If you are heading downtown, you should prepare as if the work will be going on.
I have also been asked if the bumps in the freeway on the joints the contractor has replaced will get any better. I am hearing the contractor plans to come back and try to level them some more.
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