Sully’s tips and tricks to survive Revive I-5 and its egregious hour-long delays
Jul 23, 2025, 12:42 PM | Updated: Jul 24, 2025, 8:29 am
For the third straight day, commuters faced massive backups heading into Seattle from Snohomish County, thanks to the ongoing Revive I-5 project, which will keep the southbound express lanes closed for the next month.
“Apparently, they didn’t do anything different,” KIRO Newsradio traffic reporter Chris Sullivan said. “They did the exact same thing that they did yesterday. And we’ve been running with hour 30, hour 45, and hour 50-minute trips coming down from the Everett area.”
On Monday, the first day without the I-5 express lanes open in the southbound direction, commuters encountered a 10-mile backup that stretched from Mountlake Terrace to downtown Seattle. The travel time from Everett to Seattle hovered around an hour and 40 minutes through most of the morning, double the normal time.
“People will adapt to this,” Pearce said. “We see it all the time. Whenever we’re doing road work, they just need to kind of experience it a little bit sometimes, and then they get used to it. They make changes in their behavior, and that just helps keep traffic moving.”
Tips to survive Revive I-5
So you’ve had it with hour delays into Seattle from Snohomish County because of construction. What can you try instead? Sullivan shared that there are a few ways to avoid the backups.
Light rail is one option, but parking at transit centers like in Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace can be difficult.
“Light Rail is the most obvious answer, though it will be very hard to park at the transit centers,” Sullivan said. “My recommendation is to have somebody drop you off at Lynnwood or Mountlake Terrace and catch a train.”
Another strategy: shift your schedule. Commuters who hit I-5 before 6 a.m. are avoiding the worst of the slowdown. Alternatively, try to adjust your schedule to work remotely if possible.
“I might consider scheduling a breakfast meeting or a get-together near your job before your normal hours and just to get to Seattle really early,” Sullivan said. “If you can be on I-5 before 6 a.m., you will miss most of the delays. The best option might be to ask your boss if you can work from home or change your shift. Remember, we have three more weeks of this to survive.”
