EVERETT – The City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to tear out the 41st Street overpass for six months.

The 25,000 vehicles that cross the bridge each day will have to use detours that go as far north as 36th Street, but bridge reconstruction will be completed in less than half the time other options would take.

“This will be extremely rapid construction activity,” city engineer Dave Davis said. “DOT will have a noise variance so they can work into the night to get this thing done in six months.”

The city’s other option was to reduce the bridge to one or two lanes, which would have added about a year to construction.

Between May and November, the span will be rebuilt with six lanes, making it wider than it will be long.

Last month, the bridge project was rolled into the state Department of Transportation’s $260 million I-5 expansion project, which called for an updated intersection on the 41st Street bridge.

Now, the city and the Department of Transportation projects will be done at the same time, and for at least $6 million less than it would have cost to do the projects back-to-back.

Between May and November, Cascade View bridge will be converted to one-way eastbound that will connect with northbound I-5 and the Lowell neighborhood.

From Lowell, drivers headed to downtown Everett or southbound I-5 will travel north on Smith Avenue and then west on 36th Street. The city plans to add a temporary traffic signal at the corner of Broadway and 36th Street.

The larger project includes:

* Construction of carpool lanes north and south between the Boeing Freeway and Marine View Drive;

* An all-purpose lane in both directions between 41st Street and U.S. 2;

* A new right-hand exit from northbound I-5 on to Broadway;

* And 1.3 miles of sound-deadening walls along I-5 between 52nd and 75th streets.

Reporter Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422 or kkapralos@heraldnet.com.