Work to detour I-5 at night

Published 9:00 pm Friday, November 21, 2003

LYNNWOOD — Southbound I-5 through Lynnwood will be closed completely Sunday and Monday nights while construction crews put in the skeleton of what eventually will become new on- and off-ramps to the Lynnwood Park and Ride lot.

The closures will begin from the far left carpool lane, moving right, at 8 p.m. Sunday and Monday, closing completely by 10 p.m. All lanes will reopen at 5 a.m. Monday and Tuesday.

Southbound onramps in Lynnwood at 196th Street SW and 44th Avenue W. will close at 8 p.m. Sunday and Monday and reopen at 5 a.m. Monday and Tuesday.

Southbound I-5 drivers will be detoured at 196th Street SW (Highway 524) in Lynnwood, continue west to Highway 99, head south to 244th Street SW (Highway 104), and take 244th Street back to I-5.

"We’re hoping that this is the only closure that we’ll have" for the project," said Dawn McIntosh, project engineer for the state Department of Transportation. "We’re not really anticipating another one."

The $13.1 million project is being funded by Sound Transit. It eventually will create direct onramps and offramps from the I-5 carpool lanes to the Lynnwood Park and Ride at 44th Avenue W. and 200th Street SW. The project is scheduled for completion in summer 2005, but McIntosh said crews are trying to finish as much as a year earlier.

Another I-5 project at the north end of Lynnwood is creating some confusion for drivers.

This week, the Department of Transportation reconfigured the southbound I-5 lanes near the 164th Street SW exit and installed a small island in the middle of the lanes with pylons.

Throughout the week, the pylons have been knocked over and needed to be replaced, but crews were to spend Thursday night installing a concrete barrier around the island, said Brian Dobbins, assistant project engineer for the Department of Transportation.

In the middle of the island, crews will place a concrete tower that will hold up a bridge that will connect carpool lanes to yet another park-and-ride lot off the 164th Street SW exit.

Once the bridge is built, the concrete tower will come down. That is expected to take at least six months.

Until then, transportation officials are posting signs telling drivers not to change lanes in that stretch of road.

Dobbins said officials are taking as many safety precautions as they can.

"We always have concerns when you drop a fixed object in the middle of the lanes," he said. We’re doing everything we can possibly think of through studies and traffic experts to make it safe."

vbalta@heraldnet.com. Reporter Victor Balta: 425-339-3455 or vbalta@heraldnet.com.