Blue Angels aren’t just stopping traffic on I-90 bridge
Jul 31, 2018, 6:11 AM
(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
The Blue Angels aren’t just going to shut down I-90 for drivers this week. They will be stopping work on Sound Transit light rail.
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Everyone has to vacate the I-90 floating bridge during Blue Angel practice sessions and performances.
Sound Transit spokesperson Rachelle Cunningham said this is the second year they’ve had to work with the Blue Angels. However, there is much more construction activity this time around. At this time last year, Sound Transit had barely taken-over the express lanes.
“We have planned for those closures so there won’t be any work going on during the Blue Angel flyovers,” she said.
Cunningham expects workers to start heading for either end of the bridge about an hour before the Blue Angels take flight.
“I’m sure they have built-into their schedules time for everybody to wrap up what they are doing and safely get off the bridge,” she said.
Most of the light rail work is being done inside the pontoons at this time. Crews are making sure the bridge can handle all the new weight.
Cunningham said workers just finished post-tensioning on the giant steel cables that have been installed in the pontoons. They go across the structure to stabilize it and make it stronger.
“There are about 3,600 feet of it that stretches from one end of the bridge to the other,” she said.
Contractors had to close the westbound lanes of I-90 overnight last weekend to get some of that work done. Cunningham is hopeful they won’t have to close lanes again to finish the job.
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Work is also underway on the tracks, but not on the floating bridge.
“A lot of the track has already been delivered, and a lot of it is over on Mercer Island,” Cunningham said. “They have been welding it together.
Cunningham said Sound Transit is still on schedule to get light rail to Bellevue by 2023 and to Redmond by 2024.
Blue Angels practice and performance
The mainlines of I-90 will be closed between I-5 in Seattle and Island Crest Way on Mercer Island at the following days and times:
- Thursday, Aug. 2: 9:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.; 1- 2:45 p.m. (practices)
- Friday, Aug. 3: 12:55 – 2:45 p.m. (Seafair Air Show)
- Saturday, Aug. 4 : 12:55 – 2:45 p.m. (Seafair Air Show)
- Sunday, Aug. 5: 12:55 – 2:45 p.m. (Seafair Air Show)
Several ramps will close 30 minutes to one hour prior to the full I-90 closure.
Mercer Island ramps to close:
- West Mercer Way to westbound I-90 (up to 90 minutes beforehand)
- East Mercer Way to westbound I-90 (up to 60 minutes beforehand)
- Eastbound I-90 to West Mercer Way (up to 30 minutes beforehand)
- 76th Avenue to westbound I-90 (up to 30 minutes beforehand)
- Island Crest Way to westbound I-90 (up to 30 minutes beforehand)
Seattle ramps to close:
- Northbound I-5 to eastbound I-90
- Southbound I-5 to eastbound I-90
- Northbound Rainier Avenue South to eastbound I-90
- Southbound Rainier Avenue South to eastbound I-90
