Lynnwood finally breaks ground on $70M I-5 bridge after 20 years of planning

After more than 20 years of planning, the City of Lynnwood is finally building a new bridge over I-5. Construction just got underway.

It is not easy to get around Lynnwood today. Not only has the population grown, but so have the surrounding communities. There are no real direct routes between destinations on the north and south sides of the city. They are bisected by I-5. Most routes take you over 196th Street, but then you have to twist and turn to get where you want to go. That all ends with this project.

Poplar Way goes north and south, connecting Brier to Lynnwood, but stops abruptly at I-5. 33rd Avenue W. also runs north-south and ends at I-5. That road runs along the west side of Alderwood Mall.

According to Lynnwood City Engineer David Mach, it just made sense to connect them.

“The intersections line up perfectly,” he said.

This will provide a straight shot into Alderwood Mall and take pressure off the rest of the roads.

Lynnwood is growing

And here are some crazy stats about Lynnwood. The population is just more than 40,000, but 50,000 to 60,000 cars use the 196th overpass of I-5 every day. This new bridge is expected to handle more than 30,000 vehicles a day.

“By putting another crossing, it makes the trip links much shorter now for people who want to get from one side to the other, and it also reduces the amount of trips that are crossing at those other existing crossings,” Mach said. “By building a new bridge, you’re actually helping congestion at the other crossings too.”

There are already lane restrictions on either side of the construction zone. Grading work and debris removal are underway. Contractors have to raise the intersections on either side of I-5 by three or four feet. Sometime next year, the city will install the girders over I-5. Most of that work is expected to take place overnight.

The goal is to limit the disruptions to the public during construction.

“There might be some small things to get equipment in and out, that type of thing, but the goal is that we’re going to try to keep the freeway running without most people even noticing,” Mach said.

Construction should take approximately two years. The price tag, once property acquisition is included, is about $70 million.

Getting that funding is why this project has taken so long to get started.

“You start up with an idea, and then you don’t have any money to go any further, so it was kind of the stop-start, stop-start,” Mach said. “We got some more grant money, so let’s start the design. And then we ran out of money, so we’re going to have to wait. This cycle continued for years.”

But the city has the money, and dirt is turning.

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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