Revive I-5 is about to give Seattle drivers a break, but don’t get too comfortable

We’ve almost made it. We’re about halfway through the Revive I-5 work this year, and the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is about to take down the work zone across the Ship Canal Bridge.

But this reprieve won’t last for long. Revive I-5 isn’t going anywhere.

We’re down to the last few things on the list before WSDOT can reopen all lanes of northbound I-5 across the Ship Canal Bridge. Most of the heavy equipment is gone, and the work is almost done.

“We’re on schedule to get the work done,” WSDOT spokesperson Tom Pearce said. “We’re finishing up some asphalt paving right now. We are doing some smoothing and concrete grooving, and we should be ready to do our weekend work and get the freeway open in time for the World Cup.”

The contractor is ready to shut down all lanes of northbound I-5 this weekend to remove the temporary jersey barriers and work zone. All lanes will be closed from late Friday night until early Monday morning. The express lanes will remain open in the northbound direction, but you should expect massive delays getting into Seattle all weekend.

Everything returns to normal once this weekend’s closure is over.

“Once we reopen all the lanes on Monday morning, June 8, we will have the express lanes back into their regular configuration, where they open southbound in the morning, and they will close and then reopen northbound in the afternoons,” Pearce said. “That’s going to run through Friday, July 10.”

About a month. That’s about all we will get for normal for the next year and a half.

Revive I-5 returns in July with more lane closures and a months-long ramp shutdown

The weekend of July 10, WSDOT will return with another full northbound I-5 closure to reinstall the work zone, but it will be the two right lanes blocked this time.

“It’s going to be the same sort of setup,” Pearce said. “It’s just that with traffic on the left. We will have the express lanes northbound only 24 hours a day, starting again with that weekend and continuing through the fall.”

An added wrinkle to the lane closures starting in July, drivers coming from the north end of Capitol Hill and the Eastlake neighborhood will not be able to get on I-5 at Harvard Avenue.

“We are going to need to close that Harvard Avenue on-ramp for a few months,” Pearce said. “We are still working on the final schedule for that, but we will reopen it as soon as we get to a point where we can.”

The bridge work starts at the south end of the Ship Canal and moves north. It will take some time before the work moves past that exit. Drivers wanting to hit I-5 in that part of the city will need to go up to 45th in the U-District or down to Mercer.

The northbound I-5 work should last through the end of the year, and life will return to normal, briefly.

Southbound I-5 lanes are next, and 2027 won’t have any breaks

Early next year, likely in January, the work shifts into the southbound lanes of I-5 across the Ship Canal Bridge.

“We don’t have a solid date yet for when we’ll be starting work on the southbound lanes, but it’ll be in the early part of 2027,” Pearce said.

And that work is expected to last all of 2027, with no breaks.

During the lane closures next year, the express lanes will remain open southbound 24/7. There will be no northbound access, so northbound drivers will be able to experience what southbound drivers have so far this year.

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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