LYNNWOOD – The state’s first freeway ramp that allows buses and carpool traffic to exit directly into a park-and-ride lot will open in Lynnwood on Wednesday.
The Lynnwood Park-and-Ride direct access ramp is being finished six months ahead of schedule and at a cost that is $5 million less than the $27 million Sound Transit originally estimated.
The ramp will allow buses and carpools to avoid using neighborhood streets to reach the busy park-and-ride, shaving critical minutes off the commute to Seattle, said Lee Somerstein, a spokesman for Sound Transit.
Not having to use 44th Avenue W. or Alderwood Mall Way to get to 200th Street SW, and finally to the park-and-ride, will save bus commuters 15 to 20 minutes a day.
“I speculate that this will be the single largest time savings in our district,” Somerstein said. “At peak hours, I’ll bet it’s one of the most difficult intersections in Snohomish County.”
A similar ramp is being built at the Ash Way Park-and-Ride about four miles north on I-5, a project that is behind schedule because of difficulties building the overpass.
Sound Transit is in the process of building nine direct-access ramps around the Puget Sound region, including three in Snohomish County.
Construction is to start in 2006 on a 400-stall park-and-ride lot and bus stop on the I-5 median just north of 112th Street SE. Buses and carpool drivers will enter the station by a direct ramp. It will be built on a wide section between the northbound and southbound lanes that is now covered by a grove of trees.
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