SHORELINE, Wash. — A seven-month road closure is a little over a week underway in Shoreline. Crews are renovating North 145th Street and the Interstate 5 interchange.
The project is designed to prepare for the new light rail station to open later this year and keep up with the growth of the area.
Along 145th there are road closure signs, construction crews and sounds of chainsaws. The area is full of traffic drums as drivers pass by.
“It's just so much traffic,” Roshni Patel, who lives near the construction site, said. “We have to take different detours sometimes taking us 10-15 minutes longer."
One week in, Patel and others living near the closure are adjusting to using alternate routes like 130th Street. All of them appear to be more congested.
"We get it. It's hard," City of Shoreline Public Works Director Tricia Juhnke said.
The city said the full closure will speed up construction. The result will lead to improved safety and better traffic flow.
Crews are putting in left turn lanes, removing all signals and adding two two-lane roundabouts.
"There's no stopping and waiting. Cars can continually move through the roundabout, and so we don't see the backups and congestion," Juhnke said.
The project widens 145th Street. That means removing 317 trees. Some in the community fought hard to save them but the efforts were not successful.
Instead, the city said it’s planting 800 new trees to replace them.
"We've saved trees where we can save trees, but there's just a lot that are right in the way of the improvements we need to make," Juhnke said.
City leaders consider it a long-term investment. The project will create easier access to public transportation and fewer cars idling at lights due to the roundabouts.
Despite the traffic delays, some living in the area said it will be well worth the wait.
"I think we'll have a slightly more livable city, that's a little more walkable, that's friendly towards cars and pedestrians," another person living near the construction said.
Juhnke said the changes will have a lasting impact on how traffic moves through the corridor and region.
Sound Transit announced this month that the new light rail station will open in August. However, 145th Street will still be closed for a couple more months after that.
"Our contractor will need to make provisions to make sure we can get cars, bikes and pedestrians to the new station safely," Juhnke said.
The closure ends this fall, but construction on the project is expected to continue into the fall of 2025.