New lane on I-5 buys a little time

Published 12:43 pm Friday, July 27, 2007

EVERETT – Going from stop-crawl-stop to zoom-zoom-zoom feels good.

For the first time in 40 years, I-5 is wider in downtown Everett – at least for one mile in the northbound direction.

A new merging lane opened Thursday between 41st Street SE to U.S. 2., with state traffic engineers saying it would untangle a notorious backup that occurs between Highway 526 and the trestle each weekday afternoon.

“It is working very well,” said Ryan Bianchi, a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation. “I don’t see any backup collecting on I-5 near 41st Street.”

He was tracking the progress of the new lane at DOT headquarters in Shoreline on Thursday afternoon.

However, farther south, the usual backups were building up at Highway 526 to Broadway, a disappointment to transportation officials who hoped that those backups would disappear.

During rush hour, the trip was about five minutes faster between Highway 526 and U.S. 2, according to an unofficial accounting by a Herald reporter.

Starting at 5:15 p.m., on Wednesday it took 19 minutes to get through the five-mile section of highway. Traffic dragged along between 5 mph and 10 mph most of the way.

On Thursday, the same route took 14 minutes, with the speed usually about 20 mph. Traffic sped up substantially past the former bottleneck near 41st Street SE.

Traffic should speed up even more when new carpool lanes open on the highway in December, and when much of the other construction taking place on the highway finishes, Bianchi said.

He said it was particularly pleasing to see drivers using the new merge lane to safely move from 41st Street to northbound I-5.

“It is a tremendously better merge from 41st Street to I-5 and from I-5 to Pacific Avenue and from I-5 to U.S. 2,” he said.

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

Trooper Kirk Rudeen said he loves the new lane. He drove the new configuration Thursday morning.

“Now merging onto I-5 is so much easier,” he said. “That onramp basically becomes your lane when you’re coming on the freeway. Now you have that extra mile to safely merge over. That’s huge.”

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.

Reporter Lukas Velush: 425-339-3449 or lvelush@ heraldnet.com.