The new I-5 through Everett is beginning to take shape.
Crews are moving dirt along the freeway and preparing to widen bridges. The new right-hand offramp that will connect northbound I-5 with Broadway is starting to look like a real freeway exit.
“Sometime in June, the first part of summer, this thing will be open and functioning,” state Department of Transportation spokeswoman Connie Lewis said. “The flyover is flying.”
People can expect traffic delays as work continues to widen and expand I-5 through north Everett, one of the state’s most notorious traffic choke points. The $260 million project is expected to be finished in 2008.
Niki Desautels / The Herald
Pacific Avenue beneath I-5 will be closed Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights while crews demolish portions of the freeway bridge and set girders for its expansion, according to the Transportation Department.
These are in addition to periodic closures already in effect because of the construction.
Drivers on the freeway will be required to slow down near Pacific Avenue between midnight and 5 a.m. on the nights work is in progress.
About $220 million of the project is for carpool and all-purpose lanes between Highway 526, the Boeing Freeway, and U.S. 2, and for the right-lane flyover exit from northbound I-5 to Broadway.
The other $40 million is to rebuild the overcrowded 41st Street SE overpass. Traffic will be detoured for six months while the new bridge is built. The Transportation Department has not yet decided on a detour route.
| I-5 alert
Pacific Avenue will be closed beneath I-5 Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights while crews demolish portions of the freeway bridge and set girders for its expansion. Traffic on I-5 will be required to slow down near Pacific Avenue while the work is taking place. |
Workers have already begun grading and paving to prepare for the new carpool lanes. They will pour the road surface for the Broadway exit by the end of the month.
The first part of a new retaining wall in Lowell has been finished. Workers will soon build a noise wall on top of the wall, as well as expand the retaining wall north along the freeway to Cascade View Bridge.
Crews are also preparing to install a noise wall along the edge of the Pinehurst Neighborhood.
Workers are also getting ready to begin widening the freeway’s bridges over 36th Street and Smith Avenue.
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