New lane should unclog I-5 northbound

Published 11:35 pm Tuesday, July 24, 2007

EVERETT – The daily crawl on I-5 in downtown Everett is about to end – at least in the northbound lanes.

Weaving traffic that turns the freeway into a parking lot every afternoon should untangle itself when a new northbound lane makes its debut this week, state traffic engineers say.

A new merging lane about a mile long will connect the onramp from 41st Street SE to the exit to U.S. 2. It’s scheduled to open for service Thursday morning.

The new pavement represents the first expansion of I-5 in central Everett since the freeway was built 40 years ago, said Ryan Bianchi, a state Department of Transportation spokesman.

“It’s easily one of the worst choke points in the state,” Bianchi said. “I think drivers will notice a significant improvement.”

Instead of dodging in and out of mainline traffic, drivers getting on and off the freeway at 41st Street and U.S. 2 will sort themselves out on the new auxiliary lane, said Dave Doles, project manager for contractor Atkinson-CH2M Hill. That will allow speeds on the freeway to dramatically improve during the afternoon commute.

“They should be able to drive faster than a slow walk,” Doles said.

State traffic engineers are hedging on how fast they expect the gridlock to disappear because they don’t know how long it will take people to begin using the new lane.

They also believe that drivers who take alternate routes to avoid the troublesome section of freeway may now go back to I-5.

“We’re all hoping that (the afternoon backups) go away,” said Pat McCormick, the state’s chief engineer on the widening project. “With anything that you do, there’s a learning curve with the driver. I don’t expect to see a change right away.”

A matching auxiliary lane is scheduled to open in the southbound direction around Christmas, eliminating the other major choke point on I-5 in Everett, Doles said.

That’s also when new carpool lanes stretching from Highway 526 to the Snohomish River are scheduled to open, he said. That’s the main feature of the state’s ongoing $263 million Everett I-5 widening project.

“Opening the new lane will give drivers much-needed relief when it comes to traveling through the northern portion of the Puget Sound region,” said Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson. “The lane will not only open up capacity and relieve a long-time choke point, but it will make the drive through Everett much more enjoyable.”

Finishing the auxiliary lane also means that work will shift to the narrow median, where workers will begin building carpool lanes.

Unlike other sections of the project, the only way for workers to get to the work site is by slowing down in the fast lane, Doles said. It’s a difficult workspace because there’s little room and much of it is elevated on a series of bridges.

“Our plea to the traveling public is to slow down and pay attention,” Doles said.

It was only a month ago that a worker was killed at an I-405 construction site in Kirkland, he said.