SEATTLE — The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) will scale back Revive I-5 work in Seattle during the upcoming busy sports weekend.
According to the WSDOT, the only closure in the city will be the Columbian Way off-ramp. All other Revive I-5 projects in Seattle will remain paused. Those projects include work on the I-5 mainline, I-90 ramps, collector/distributor lanes and the ramp to the West Seattle Bridge.
The Revive I-5 project consists of over 20 restoration projects for the I-5 corridor in King County.
Some of the work has included rehabilitation for the 1.25 miles of the roadway between I-90 and Spokane Street, as well as the replacement of 40 expansion joints, which allow the highway to expand and contract depending on weather conditions and flex under the weight of heavy vehicles.
The whole project is expected to be finished in the 2030s.
“How big of backups we've seen really depends on what people choose to do. If people, try to do their regular thing stay on I-5 all the way through, we’re going to have more cars; we're going to see bigger backups. If people use alternative routes, the backups will be smaller,” said WSDOT spokesperson Tom Pearce.
Many major Seattle sports teams have home games this weekend, which will increase the number of drivers downtown.
“We saw this weekend coming several weeks ago, even before the Mariners had a playoff game. We knew there was going to be a lot of events between the Huskies, the Seahawks, and the Kraken. So, we worked with our contractor to schedule work that would have the lowest level of effect on travel,” said Pearce.
Here's a schedule of the sporting events in Seattle this weekend:
- The Mariners will play the Houston Astros in Game 3 of the ALDS on Saturday, Oct. 15 at 1:07 p.m.
- The Mariners will play the Houston Astros in Game 4 of the ALDS (if needed) on Sunday, Oct. 16 at 12:07 p.m.
- The Kraken will play the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday, Oct. 15 at 7 p.m.
- UW Football will play the Arizona Wildcats on Saturday, Oct. 15 at 2:30 p.m.
- If the Mariners end up playing on Sunday, the Seahawks will kickoff against the Arizona Cardinals at 2:30 p.m. If the Mariners don't play on Sunday, the game will start at 1:05 p.m. This time shift was deemed necessary because the two stadiums are only about 0.2 miles away from each other.
While Revive I-5 work will be scaled back in Seattle this weekend, there will be Revive I-5 work in Everett. According to the WSDOT, crews will close multiple northbound lanes of I-5 between Lowell Road and Snohomish River from 8 p.m. Friday through 5 a.m. Monday.
The department said northbound I-5 will be reduced to two lanes during the day and reduced to only one lane overnight. The 41st Street & Broadway off-ramp will also be closed. However, the WSDOT said the Broadway HOV off-ramp will be open to all.
This will be the first of three straight weekends with lane reductions in Everett – work also is planned for the weekends of Oct. 22-23 and 29-30. During the closures, crews will replace broken concrete panels that are more than 50 years old. The work is weather-dependent.
“We need to break those panels into pieces that we can take out of there,” said Pearce. “We need to look at the soil underneath and make sure that it's in good shape or do anything we need to amend that, and then we must pour the new panels and let them set.”
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