Massive 18-month delay in I-405 widening project

This is not the news Eastside drivers want to hear, but the opening of the express toll lanes between Bellevue and Renton has been delayed by a year and a half.

The widening of I-405 between Bellevue and Renton was supposed to wrap up by the end of the year, extending the Express Toll lanes south to SR 167.

WSDOT will miss that deadline by 18 months, project administrator Lisa Hodgson told me in an exclusive interview Monday afternoon.

“We’ve been looking at the progress that we made over the summer and really looking at the work that’s ahead of us, and at this time we are forecasting that our project will be complete in summer 2027,” she said.

That’s an 18-month delay, at a minimum.

I asked Hodgson how the project got so far behind. The project started just before the pandemic and had to work through that. There was a concrete workers’ strike. Bad weather has played a part.

But her simple answer was this.

“We’re seeing that we’ve missed some key milestones, and the progression of that construction is just not going as quickly as we thought it would,” Hodgson said.

And she puts that directly on the contractor. In fact, WSDOT is in active litigation against the contractor for missing the construction deadline. The litigation actually began in 2023 as it became clear the project was falling behind.

Hodgson wouldn’t discuss the ins and outs of the legal filings, only saying that the goal is to see that all contractual obligations are met and the public interest, including financial accountability, is protected. The contractor is also asking WSDOT for millions more dollars to complete the work. WSDOT is fighting that too.

With delays, especially with ones as large as this one, we usually see the budget balloon. The contractor bid was $705 million.

Hodgson isn’t sure how much this will impact the bottom line.

“We’re right in the midst of looking at our traffic and revenue projections and updates from looking at that summer 2027,” Hodgson said. “I don’t have clear data right now to share, but once we do have additional information, we’ll be able to share that as well.”

That’s another reason why the state is suing the contractor. It is also still working with the same contractor to see if there are ways to speed up that timeline.

What is Hodgson’s message for all those Eastside drivers?

“We do know that this is probably disappointing to our folks who have been driving through that construction, and everybody is anxious for this project to get done,” Hodgson said.

When the project is complete, whenever that happens, the express lanes will go from Lynnwood to Auburn.

Chris Sullivan is a traffic reporter for KIRO Newsradio. Read more of his stories here. Follow KIRO Newsradio traffic on X.

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