As predicted, loss of SB I-5 express lanes causes huge morning delays

I knew what was coming. I warned drivers about what was coming.

As expected, southbound I-5 drivers were greeted with massive backups out of Snohomish County because of the loss of the express lanes. They are normally open southbound in the morning, handling tens of thousands of drivers each day. Those express lanes are now open in the northbound direction 24/7 until June because of construction across the Ship Canal Bridge.

The backup started at just about 6 a.m., right where drivers lose the HOV lane in Northgate. Within a half hour, the congestion from losing that lane extended to Shoreline. Within an hour, the backup started before the Edmonds exit and extended to about 85th. A seven-mile backup and a 30-40 minute delay. That’s when drivers started to bail and head to southbound I-405 out of Lynnwood.

History repeats itself on I-5

This is the same pattern we saw last summer when the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) used this same configuration for one month of construction work on the Ship Canal Bridge.

After seeing what happened last summer, a lot of drivers asked me why WSDOT wouldn’t keep those express lanes open for a few hours in the southbound direction to prevent these massive backups.

This is what WSDOT Secretary Julie Meredith told KIRO Newsradio last week.

“It’s not as easy as flipping a switch to switch them, and so we found that it operates better if we maintain a consistent system rather than take them out of service in order to flip the switch back and forth,” Meredith said. “It’s a better system, while we have the closures in place.”

I’m not sure drivers will agree.

By 8 a.m., the southbound I-5 backup started at SR 104 in Edmonds and extended to the Ship Canal Bridge. More than eight miles of congestion. It was close to an hour and 20 minutes from Lynnwood to Seattle, a 40-plus-minute delay. SB 405 had jumped up to an hour and 10 minutes from Lynnwood. SB 99, as an option to avoid the backup, was gone as well. It was bumper-to-bumper from Northbound to South Lake Union.

Keep this in mind, this was a Monday morning, our second lightest day for traffic volume each workday. It is only going to get worse, and this is only day one.

My best advice is to leave an hour earlier than normal. Try to off-shift your schedule. Use transit, if you can.

By the way, the northbound I-5 drive into Seattle was running about 10-15 minutes faster than a normal morning because drivers didn’t have to merge out of the HOV/express lanes exit lane. There was about a two-mile backup and a 15-20 minute delay from the Convention Center north to the Ship Canal Bridge.  That also mirrors what we saw last summer.

This is our life until June.

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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