Everett I-5 widening complete, drive already smoother

EVERETT — After enduring more than two years of rough roads, lane closures and detours Everett commuters can breathe a collective sigh of relief.

A carpool-only onramp and offramp from I-5 to Broadway opened Thursday, marking the final piece of a massive widening project on I-5 from the Snoho­mish River to the Boeing Freeway.

The $263 million project — the most expensive highway project in Snohomish County history — is already being credited with improving the twice-daily crawl through downtown Everett.

The project included the widening or replacement of 23 overpasses, the construction of a water treatment facility that can filter 153 million gallons of previously untreated highway runoff every year, and 11 freeway exits and onramps.

It also adds 6 miles of ­northbound carpool lanes and 4.6 miles of southbound carpool lanes.

State and local officials Thursday celebrated the occasion with a ribbon cutting on the new commuter link to the freeway, just south of downtown Everett.

“Transportation and the way in which people move has significantly improved in this community,” Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson said to TV cameras and a small audience huddled under umbrellas.

The mayor recalled how he used to avoid the city’s notorious afternoon bottleneck on I-5 by cutting through city streets.

Since the new carpool lanes recently opened, he said that’s no longer the case.

Construction started in September 2005.

It was originally scheduled to begin in 2009 and finish in 2012, but state lawmakers expedited the schedule in anticipation of heavy traffic during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, B.C.

The Everett I-5 widening project was funded by two separate gas tax increases that began in 2003 and 2005.

It is the third most expensive highway project in the state’s history, only surpassed by the Tacoma Narrows bridges at $771 million and the Hood Canal Bridge project at $471 million, in today’s dollars.

State Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, applauded the state transportation department and contractors Atkinson-CH2M Hill for accelerating project completion, working at night and phasing construction to allow traffic to keep moving.

“It wasn’t real pleasant, but it wasn’t a nightmare,” said Haugen, chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Committee.

The design and build contract with Atkinson-CH2M Hill saved money and also gave the state transportation agency flexibility in how it approached the widening project.

One example is the last-­minute addition of the $48.2 million 41st Street overpass into the construction contract.

State Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond said the state saved an estimated $20 million designing the project on the fly. “It was a great example of how nimble (the state Department of Transportation) and its contractors can be,” said Hammond, who was appointed state transportation chief in October.

Doing the work sooner and quickly also pleased the Boeing Co., which in 2004 still hadn’t announced where it would build the new 787 Dreamliner. The company eventually decided to assemble it in Everett.

Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon said the widening of I-5 through Everett is good for commuters and the economy.

“This project is going to help commuters throughout Snohomish County, particularly in Everett,” he said.

A recent traffic study shows improvements already are helping commuters save time along the busy freeway.

Morning commuters southbound on I-5 spend an average of two minutes traveling from Marine View Drive to 41st Street, according to the state. That’s down from an average of six minutes to drive the 2-mile stretch in 2005.

Afternoon commuters heading northbound on I-5 now can drive the 8 miles on the freeway from 128th Street SW to Marine View Drive within an average 10 minutes. That’s down from 18 minutes in 2005.

On an typical day, about 170,000 vehicles use the interstate in Everett.

Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.

A wider I-5, by the numbers

$263 million: construction and design costs

17: new traffic cameras

72,000: cubic yards of concrete

12 million: pounds of rebar

470,000: cubic yards of dirt excavated or placed

15,000: gallons of paint used for lane striping