Four full closures for SR 529 coming in May
Apr 29, 2025, 6:14 AM
State Route 529 to have four full highway closures in May. (Photo courtesy of WSDOT)
(Photo courtesy of WSDOT)
Heads up Marysville and Everett. State Route 529 (SR 529) is not going to be a reliable way to make that connection in May. Four full highway closures are on next month’s schedule, starting this weekend.
The northbound Steamboat Slough bridge is 98 years old. The southbound bridge is more than 70 years old. It’s time to get inside them and fix the guts.
“They’ve both been around a long time, and they both need to get this work done to make sure that they can continue to function,” Tom Pearce, a communications specialist with the Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT), said.
Unlike previous weekend closures, these closures will last four days each, from Friday night through Tuesday night.
“The work that our contractor is doing requires four days,” Pearce said. “They need to get into the bridge and do some mechanical work on the locking mechanism and make sure that everything else is working fine. It just takes time to complete all that work.”
You might not realize it, but maritime traffic relies on this bridge opening.
“These bridges only open about 30 times a year, but federal law does require us to maintain them,” Pearce said. “If marine traffic wants to go through, marine traffic actually has the right of way in this area.”
When the first of these closures is set to happen
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The first two four-day closures begin at 11 p.m. Friday night. This will be a closure of the northbound span. Southbound will remain open. The closure will last until 11 p.m. Tuesday. Northbound drivers will still be able to access Smith Island via 28th Place NE.
“During the first two weekends, people will be able to go northbound onto Smith Island on SR 529, but they’ll have to take southbound to leave the island,” Pearce added.
The first two closures will be northbound. This weekend and next weekend. The southbound closures are scheduled for the third and fifth weekends of the month. There will be no work or closures over the Memorial Day weekend.
Approximately 19,000 vehicles use the Steamboat Bridge each day. I-5 is the primary alternate.
Chris Sullivan is a traffic reporter for KIRO Newsradio. Read more of his stories here. Follow KIRO Newsradio traffic on X.
