Merging skills activate: Major traffic shift coming where I-5 meets eastbound SR 520

Attention, I-5 and State Route 520 (SR 520) drivers. I hope your merging skills are up to the task. A major traffic shift will greet you on Monday morning, and it will take some getting used to.

Getting on eastbound SR 520 from either direction of I-5 hasn’t changed since the interchange was built. Northbound I-5 drivers end up in the right lane of eastbound 520. Southbound I-5 drivers end up in the left lane. That switches this weekend.

Come Monday, northbound I-5 drivers will be on a new ramp that goes over the southbound I-5 ramp and pops onto SR 520 in the left lane.

“If you follow the car in front of you and we stripe it properly, which we will, you’ll just use a new ramp to get to eastbound SR 520,” Washington State Department of Transportation spokesperson Steve Peer said. “I think the bigger thing will be people coming from southbound I-5. Instead of having traffic on their right, they’ll have traffic on their left.”

This will create a new merging scenario for drivers wishing to get off at Montlake Boulevard. Northbound I-5 drivers will now have to merge into the right lane to do it.

“The people who are coming from northbound I-5, wanting to go to Montlake, will have about a third of a mile to merge over,” Peer said. “Be kind to the other drivers, but you should have plenty of time to be able to get over.”

Southbound I-5 drivers will no longer have to merge. They’ll already be in the right lane.

Expect some confusion on Monday, as this is a significant shift.

Why WSDOT is rerouting I-5 ramps to SR 520

Why is WSDOT doing this?

“We need to create a work zone in these lanes because we’re building a lid over 520 and we need work room,” Peer said.

To prep for this traffic change, WSDOT will be closing eastbound 520 all weekend, from late Friday night to early Monday morning. There is a lot to accomplish.

“To not only shut down this old ramp, but also to open the new ramp,” Peer said. “There are still some finishing touches that need to happen. You can see there’s some paving, lots of striping from I-5, essentially eastbound all the way to Montlake. New striping that’ll make sure people are in their own lane.”

This new lane configuration is expected to last for about two years as contractors build the two-and-a-half-acre lid over the road and add HOV lanes from Montlake to I-5.

This is all part of the final phase of widening 520 and building the new bridge over the lake. Contractors are already building the new bridges over Portage Bay.

Work is expected to wrap up in 2030 or 2031.

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

Follow @https://twitter.com/newsguysully