I-5 due for lots of work this year

Published 12:39 pm Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Anyone driving through Snohomish County on I-5 at night over the next couple of years would do well to make sure the old iPod is in good working condition.

Nine major construction projects are planned along the freeway in the county, stretching nearly from county line to county line, with a combined price tag of more than $125 million.

Work on three of the projects has already started, work on the others is scheduled to begin by this summer at the latest, and some might not be finished until early 2011.

“These are long projects,” said Amir Ahmadi, an engineer for the state Department of Transportation.

Most of the work will be done at night and will involve closing lanes.

The projects are all happening at once because that’s when the funding became available, mostly from increases in the state gas tax over the past four years, Ahmadi said.

The biggest of the projects include installation of concrete barriers on a 10-mile stretch of I-5 through Marysville and Arlington, estimated to begin in July; a new on-ramp and other improvements to the interchange at I-5 and 172nd Street NE, on which work has already begun; and construction of a bus stop in the I-5 median and a pedestrian bridge in Mountlake Terrace, scheduled to begin in May.

The concrete barriers are expected to improve safety on a section of the freeway where eight people have died in cross-median crashes since 2000.

The concrete barriers will replace cable barriers on the northbound side of the median, while those on the southbound side will remain.

The state faces lawsuits from crash victims’ families. Engineers have determined the cables were incorrectly installed. Lawmakers in March approved $27 million to install the new barriers.

The project recently received an added bonus: $2.5 million in federal economic stimulus money for traffic cameras and other electronic equipment, said Aurora Jones, a spokeswoman for the transportation department.

This will enable the transportation department to include the stretch on its Web site that shows current traffic conditions in the region, she said.

More funding also is on the way to pay for drainage improvements in the median, officials said.

The interchange improvements at 172nd Street NE in Smokey Point are expected to ease traffic backups there.

A new loop ramp from westbound 172nd to southbound I-5 will be built, so drivers won’t have to turn left across traffic to get onto the freeway. Each of the existing on- and off-ramps will have lanes added. Noise walls will be built around the northbound on-ramp from eastbound 172nd to northbound I-5.

The state is adding right- and left-turn pockets on 172nd and on 27th to alleviate backups around the Lakewood Crossing shopping center, Ahmadi said. This will keep through traffic from having to wait for people stopped to turn right, he said.

A small park-and-ride lot on the west side of I-5 has been moved and doubled to hold more than 50 vehicles. It’s open and now located behind land being prepared for a new retail area just off 27th Avenue NE, across 172nd from Lakewood Crossing.

About 28,000 vehicles passed through the nearby intersection of 172nd and Smokey Point Boulevard, according to city and state figures. That figure is expected to grow to more than 35,000 per day by 2040.

The only project expected to require a full closure of I-5 will be the construction of a bus stop in the I-5 median in Mountlake Terrace. Northbound I-5 will have to be closed for two nights while crews lift a pedestrian bridge into place. That’s expected to happen in late summer or early fall, Ahmadi said.

The walkway bridge will connect the median bus stop and a recently built parking garage at the park-and-ride lot. The project will keep buses from having to exit the freeway to pick up and drop off riders. This will cut an estimated 10 minutes off the travel time for buses traveling southbound, Ahmadi said, because there’s no off-ramp near the park-and-ride and buses currently must meander through downtown Mountlake Terrace to reach the site.

Three paving projects are planned. The most disruptive is expected to be the work on northbound I-5 from 52nd Avenue W. in Lynnwood to the Boeing Freeway in south Everett. Work recently began on this project and is expected to take until early 2010.

“This is going to require lane closures every night,” Ahmadi said.

Work on repaving I-5 through Arlington is already under way and is expected to be done in the fall. Repaving of four miles of northbound I-5 between Everett and Marysville is expected to start in May and take until next winter.

Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439, sheets@heraldnet.com.