EVERETT — Snohomish County commuters traveling to Seattle need to prepare for upcoming lane closures on I-5 necessary for repair work, transportation officials said.
From June 20-23, the Washington State Department of Transportation will close two northbound lanes of I-5 on the Ship Canal Bridge in Seattle. A month later, northbound I-5 will be closed entirely between July 18-21 in much of Seattle to prepare for four weeks of a two-lane reduction between July 21 and Aug. 15. Northbound I-5 will fully close again Aug. 15-18 before reopening.
During the lane reductions and closures, the I-5 express lanes passing through Seattle will operate all day and only travel in the northbound direction.
More construction is set to take place through 2027 to complete more repairs and repave the surface of the bridge. In total, the project is expected to cost $203 million.
“This is one of the biggest projects that WSDOT has done in Seattle,” Department of Transportation spokesperson Tom Pearce said Tuesday.
The Ship Canal Bridge crosses over Lake Union, connecting downtown Seattle to other neighborhoods and cities to the north. Almost 240,000 vehicles cross it every day, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation.
The bridge is 60 years old and hasn’t had a major preservation effort in 40 years, a Department of Transportation website reads. It needs significant repairs to prevent unplanned closures and address maintenance issues.
When planning the repair project, the Department of Transportation considered limiting the closures to nights and weekends, but that would have extended the timeline of the repairs significantly, Pearce said.
“This thing would have taken a minimum of 10 years to finish,” he said.
Additional closures are planned for 2026 and 2027. Construction work will briefly halt during the FIFA World Cup next summer.
The closures have the potential to cause traffic headaches for Snohomish County commuters whether they’re traveling north or south. During the construction, southbound commuters will have to make do without express lanes, and northbound commuters will have to adjust to the two-lane closure.
“If people do the exact same thing they do every day, if all the people who drive to the city continue to drive to the city while this work is going on, we’re going to see bigger backups,” Pearce said.
That’s why officials are encouraging commuters to plan ahead. Those traveling to and from Seattle during the closures should try to carpool, adjust their schedules to avoid peak travel hours or to ride public transit. Sound Transit’s Link light rail can help commuters avoid I-5 traffic entirely.
Since the Lynnwood City Center light rail station opened in 2024, Community Transit, Snohomish County’s transportation agency, expanded its bus connections to light rail. Community Transit offers bus routes connecting Everett, Mukilteo, Edmonds, Smokey Point, Lake Stevens, Marysville and Stanwood to the Lynnwood station.
Everett Transit operates almost entirely within city limits, but commuters traveling to Seattle can take local routes to Everett Station or the South Everett Freeway Station, where Community Transit and Sound Transit routes connect to Link light rail.
Travelers can also take Community Transit’s Swift Blue Line between Everett and Shoreline to connect with King County Metro’s RapidRide E Line for bus service to Green Lake and downtown Seattle. Other Community Transit buses from Snohomish and Everett travel directly to downtown Seattle during commute hours.
Commuters can also drive to one of dozens of park and rides located throughout the county to catch a connecting bus route.
“We want to make sure that everyone is planning an alternate route and adjusts their plans for how they’re going to get to and from Seattle,” Community Transit spokesperson Monica Spain said May 29.
Travelers can use an ORCA card to pay fares on all transit agencies in the Puget Sound area. It may also help commuters save money because the card only charges you for the most expensive fare within a two-hour window.
Individuals with low incomes, seniors and people with disabilities may be eligible for reduced-fare ORCA cards. After the state Legislature approved the Climate Commitment Act in 2021, all children under 18 can now ride public transit for free across Washington State.
Community Transit offers a trip planner available online at communitytransit.org/plan-my-trip. A map of the I-5 closures is available online at tinyurl.com/y4rtu2fc.
Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.
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