Revive I-5 racing weather to finish in Seattle-area

We’ve been rained-out on I-5 construction this year, but now we’re going to be chilled-out?

The forecast calls for nothing but sunshine this weekend, so you’d think this would be a perfect time to finish up the Revive I-5 southbound project in Seattle.

It’s not. It’s going to be too cold. The work is going forward, but it won’t be able to wrap up as expected.

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The Washington Department of Transportation’s Tom Pearce described what’s left in the expansion joint replacement project. “All we’ve got left is some paving on the I-90 ramps to southbound I-5 where we need to pave around four expansion joints,” he said.

The plan was to finish up that paving this weekend, but it’s going to be too cold. Pearce explains why temperature is such an issue. “We have to hold off on the paving until the daylight hours when things warm up a little bit,” he said. Workers can only pour this particular concrete when it’s over 40-degrees, which it won’t be overnight this weekend.

“We’re only going to be able to work at two of the expansion joints this weekend,” Pearce said.  “We’re going to have to find another weekend where we can come back and do the other two.”  WSDOT hopes that will be next weekend, considering that the Seahawks have a bye that weekend.

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All of this weekend’s work will be centered on the I-5 and I-90 interchange just east of the stadiums. They will be closed, as will the collector-distributor lanes out of downtown Seattle to southbound I-5. You will be able to access I-90 from the C/D lanes.

WSDOT needs to finish this work this year so it can focus on the next phase of Revive I-5, which starts next year. That’s a multi-year project to replace the concrete from the Ship Canal Bridge up to Northgate.

Check out more of Chris’ Chokepoints.

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