Road repairs will shut Everett’s I-5 lanes overnight again
Published 8:29 am Monday, July 28, 2008
EVERETT — Nighttime drivers on I-5 are asked to slow down through Everett while crews repair a dozen expansion joints on the freeway.
Work began late Wednesday on the stretch of I-5 between Marine View Drive and 41st Street SE. The joint work is expected to be finished by the end of August, said Pat McCormick, a chief engineer for the state Department of Transportation.
The expansion joints connect raised segments of the freeway and allow the concrete to contract and expand as the temperature changes without damaging the roadway.
“As you get older, your joints just go bad,” McCormick said. “It isn’t much different with concrete.”
The joint repairs are part of the Department of Transportation’s $263.4 million effort to revamp I-5 through Everett. The state usually repairs joints on highways and freeways as part of larger construction projects.
Heavy truck traffic like that found on I-5 causes joints to wear out faster, McCormick said.
Both directions of the freeway are expected to remain open during the joint repairs, although travel in either direction might be reduced to a single lane at times, DOT spokeswoman Patty Michaud said.
“We want to remind people this is an active construction zone and to slow down, because we still have workers out there,” Michaud said.
On weekdays, southbound lanes on the stretch of I-5 are scheduled to be closed from 8 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. Northbound lanes are scheduled to be closed from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.
On Fridays and Saturdays, southbound lanes are scheduled to close at 9 p.m. and northbound lanes are planned to close at 10 p.m. Lanes are scheduled to be reopened by 8 the following mornings.
