Construction won’t stop just because of July 4 holiday

It’s not going to be easy on the roads this weekend.

Would you pay a $17 toll to drive from Seattle to Tacoma?

Because the Fourth of July holiday is on a Tuesday, drivers will see more traffic over the weekend mixed with construction.

The biggest impact to drivers will be the roadwork on I-90 between North Bend and Ellensburg.

Megan Lott, spokesperson for the Washington State Department of Transportation, says the roadwork is completely necessary.

“We’re replacing four bridge decks in the westbound lanes and replacing several concrete panels in the eastbound lanes. And then we are also building bridges and wildlife overpasses,” she said.

Usually the state suspends all construction over holidays, but July 4 lands on a Tuesday so that doesn’t help with all of the traffic going to the holiday destinations.

“Anytime we are planning projects we try to think of ways to impact drivers the least, unfortunately with I-90 we understand it’s a major transportation corridor and we’re not going to be able to accommodate all of the holidays…,” Lott said.

The good news, the irritating but necessary #ReviveI5 project on northbound I-5 between SeaTac and Tukwila will not be going on this weekend. We’ve been seeing delays from that floating around 45 minutes to an hour.

Here’s a tip, if you’re planning to drive westbound over Snoqualmie Pass or northbound up from Portland, try to leave after 6 p.m.

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