Snohomish County is about to experience closures it hasn’t seen in ‘many, many years’
Feb 3, 2016, 10:11 PM | Updated: May 7, 2016, 10:12 pm
Snohomish County drivers need to prepare for some of the biggest closures they’ve seen in years.
Eight weekends of lanes closures begin later this month on I-5. Southbound lanes will close for two weekends; northbound lanes for six weekends.
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The closures will extend between the Steamboat and Ebey Sloughs, just south of Marysville.
“Snohomish County hasn’t seen closures like this in many, many years,” said Kris Olsen with the Washington State Department of Transportation.
I-5 will be restricted to just two lanes during the day and one late at night.
Olsen says the state needs to close the lanes to replace expansion joints. Because of their size, crews will have to remove quite a bit of concrete around the joints.
It’s vital work that’s long overdue. Joints have been known to pop up and fail, causing accidents and lengthy unplanned closures:
“When expansion joints fail, it puts the structural integrity of the bridge in danger. And it can put drivers in danger as well. It can potentially lead to the failure of the bridge as well.”
The first of these closures is the weekend of Feb. 26-29. It will be a southbound closure. They will continue nearly every weekend through the end of April.
Olsen believes 30 percent of normal I-5 drivers must divert during these closures to avoid massive gridlock.
And drivers who use I-5 should be prepared for some white-knuckle moments. To keep two lanes open during this project, the lanes are going to be re-striped and re-sized from 12-feet wide to 10-feet wide.
The speed limit will also be reduced to 40 miles an hour.
