Following a week of particularly difficult commutes between Everett and Marysville, the end is almost in sight for one of Snohomish County’s biggest bridge preservation projects in recent history.
This weekend, May 7-8, northbound Interstate 5 will be reduced to two lanes – and at times a single lane – as contractor crews from PCL Civil Constructors replace aging expansion joints on the Ebey Slough Bridge. This is the third of up to six weekends of northbound work. Drivers should plan for delays or consider alternate routes.
“We recognize this week has been really tough on drivers,” said Washington State Department of Transportation Traffic Engineer Mike Swires. “The afternoon commute started earlier and lasted longer, and many of us working on the project drove home through it too. But we’re at the half-way point and traffic should get easier next week as we move to the next stage of work. We thank everyone for their patience as this vital work is completed.”
Weekend work begins Friday night, May 6
At 9:30 p.m. Friday, May 6, crews will begin closing lanes and moving protective concrete barriers into place around the weekend construction zone on the left side of the bridge.
In addition, drivers can expect:
- The closure of the State Route 529 on-ramp to northbound I-5.
- Only one lane of northbound I-5 open overnight Friday, May 6 and again on Sunday night, May 8.
- Three narrow lanes and the SR 529 on-ramp will reopen by 5 a.m. Monday, May 9.
After this weekend’s work, expansion joint replacement on the left half of northbound I-5 will be complete.
Plan for delays
Drivers who plan to head north this weekend should allow extra time and consider alternate routes. With the closure of the SR 529 on-ramp, surface streets in Everett and Marysville will also become more congested as drivers find their way through the area.
Restriping scheduled to begin Monday, May 9
Crews plan to begin restriping northbound I-5 at 8 p.m. Monday, May 9, to shift traffic to the left, so they can replace the expansion joints on the right. Traffic will be shifted to the left from just south of the Steamboat Slough Bridge to State Route 528.
The restriping will also return the SR 529 on-ramp to its own dedicated lane onto northbound I-5, eliminating the temporary merge that’s been in place since Friday, April 29. The restriping should help ease the particularly difficult congestion drivers experienced this past week.
The restriping work is weather-dependent.
Project information
Work on this $5.3 million preservation project to replace 41 aging expansion joints on the Ebey, Steamboat and Union sloughs bridges began in late summer 2015. The expansion joints on the southbound bridges and the northbound Union Slough bridge have been replaced. Only the northbound work on the Steamboat and Ebey bridges remains. The project is scheduled for completion by mid-June.
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