Northbound Revive I-5 enters final stretch as key on-ramp prepares to reopen

South Lake Union and Capitol Hill drivers are about to get their northbound I-5 access back, as the state pushes toward the end of Revive I-5.

The Harvard Avenue East on-ramp to northbound I-5 has been closed since July. That’s when Revive I-5 resumed in the northbound direction of the Ship Canal Bridge after the World Cup. When work moved to the two right lanes, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) had to close the only northbound I-5 on-ramp between Mercer Street and the University District.

That ramp is scheduled to open next Monday, Oct. 12.

But on-ramp users need to be very careful. Those drivers will have a quick merge, and they will have to get over to the left side of the freeway.

“People are going to have to be careful as they merge there because they won’t have the full length that they had when the bridge is fully open, but they’ll still have some room,” WSDOT spokesperson Tom Pearce said. “Just need to watch where they’re going and look for gaps.”

As for the rest of the work, it’s on schedule, and it should finish as anticipated.

“Work’s been going really well on the Ship Canal Bridge,” Pearce said. “We’re making great progress, and we expect to wrap up this portion of the work by late fall.”

Revive I-5 shifts southbound next year after northbound lanes reopen

That means all lanes of northbound I-5 across the Ship Canal Bridge should open in late November or early December, and that means a return to the tradition of switching the express lanes.

“People who drive it will see that some of the barrier has been taken down because we’ve completed a lot of the really heavy work in those areas,” Pearce said.

A lot of paving and striping still needs to be finished before all the work is complete, but we’re getting there.

But don’t get too comfortable with a return to normal operation over the holidays. Work switches to the southbound direction across the Ship Canal Bridge early next year.

“We don’t really have a date for the start of work right now,” Pearce said. “We’re probably looking at late winter.”

The work will likely get going around February. When that work starts, the I-5 express lanes will remain southbound 24-7 for the duration of the work, and that is for all of 2027, with no gaps like we had this year.

That is going to mean very different traffic patterns on I-5 for next year.

And even that won’t mark the end of Revive I-5. Concrete work between the U-District and Northgate still needs to be done.

“We don’t yet have a schedule for that work, but we’ve got a lot of major work coming there as well,” Pearce said.

I’ll keep you updated when I get the latest schedules.

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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