BELLEVUE, Wash. -- State transportation officials are considering two significant lane changes to the Interstate 405 express toll lane corridor after significant slowdowns have been detected.
Patty Rubstello, WSDOT Assistant Secretary for Tolling, says portions of northbound I-405 north of State Route 522 in the Bothell area have been experiencing more congestion than engineers predicted. That is mainly because that is where the number of express toll lanes are reduced from two to one.
WSDOT is now considering whether to add an additional lane to that stretch of highway by allowing drivers to travel on the shoulder. A spokeswoman says officials have not had enough time to evaluate the idea enough to know an estimated cost or timeline and that could take potentially up to two years.
Another change coming in the next 6-8 weeks involves lengthening the toll lane access point in the northbound lanes where SR 520 merges with I-405. That interchange sees frequent congestion.
Rubstello, speaking to a House transportation committee in Olympia, told lawmakers that drivers, overall, are saving more time on average by traveling I-405 and more drivers are using the interstate.
But critics say that data is flawed because WSDOT is using an average over the entire length of I-405 from Lynnwood to Bellevue. While some drivers may be saving time in certain stretches, others are seeing more congestion since the express toll lanes were introduced in September of last year.
"Some people are winning, some people are losing," said Mark Hallenbeck, Director of the Washington State Transportation Center at the University of Washington.
"On average in the general purpose lane from Bellevue to I-5, not much has changed," he said. "But individually some people are winning, some people are really losing."
Rubstello also says there is more congestion on the weekends that originally predicted.
