Where traffic will snarl this weekend around Seattle

There’s no such thing as “the construction season” anymore. Work is now being done year-round. This weekend there are two major closures to deal with.

One closure was planned. The second is an emergency repair.

Let’s start with the emergency work.

Highway 18 east of Auburn

The heavy December rain undercut the highway, causing it to shift, opening up 3-inch wide cracks over 500 feet in the concrete.

Related: WSDOT waives thousands of I-405 pentalties, fees

Contractors will be closing both eastbound lanes of Highway 18 at Southeast Auburn-Black Diamond Road. That’s right before the Green River Bridge, just east of Auburn. The work will start Friday night and last through Monday morning.

“They’ll be removing the existing pavement, fixing the soil under that pavement, and then paving it back,” said Annie Johnson with the Washington State Department of Transportation. “We hope to have that lane reopened by 5 a.m. Monday morning.”

That stretch of Highway 18 has been down to one lane since the December storms.

Closure on I-90

The second closure you need to prepare for is on I-90. The first directional closure of the year is this weekend. This is the 11th of about 30 scheduled closures as Sound Transit prepares to put light rail across the I-90 bridge.

This is a westbound closure from Friday night through Monday morning. All drivers will be pushed into the express lanes.

“The biggest thing that people need to know during the westbound closures: if you are heading to Mercer Island – get in that right lane,” Johnson said. “There is one exit to Mercer Island, that’s at the East Mercer Way exit. So right lane is Mercer Island, left lane is Seattle.”

Johnson further noted that if people get into the left lane they will be heading across the lake and won’t be going to Mercer Island.

There are not a lot of big events in Seattle this weekend that will conflict with this closures, but Johnson says drivers should be ready for delays.

“Any time we do this work, we expect to see increased traffic on (Highway) 520, particularly westbound,” Johnson said. “We also tend to see more traffic at the south end of the lake through Renton on I-405.”

The next closure is scheduled for the weekend of Jan. 22.

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