EVERETT — If your summer plans involve travel across the U.S. 2 trestle, prepare for delays and detours.
Long-awaited surface improvements to the pitted and pocked westbound trestle will require six full-weekend closures. That’s six 24/7 closures, where the westbound bridge will be closed from a Friday night to early the following Monday.
“Now is a good time for people to be thinking, if they do have plans east, how they’re going to get back,” said Frances Fedoriska, a spokeswoman for the Washington State Department of Transportation.
No dates have yet been set, though the state plans to avoid scheduling work on busy holiday weekends, including the Marysville Strawberry Festival.
That said, “it’s never a good time to shut down an entire direction of a highway,” Fedoriska said.
Four of the closures will have a shorter detour onto 20th Street beneath the trestle. Two of the closures will require drivers to take the long way around, using Highway 9. Both detours offer just one lane of travel, compared to the trestle’s two lanes.
Highway 528 in Marysville and Highway 96 in Mill Creek also are expected to see an uptick in traffic during the project.
The U.S. 2 repaving is the biggest-impact project among more than $46 million in state road projects that will tie up traffic in Snohomish County this summer.
Other projects will install roundabouts near Lynnwood and near Marysville, build a new bridge over a creek between Lake Stevens and Granite Falls, and repave highways west and north of Arlington.
The priciest project on the list is repaving I-5.
Last summer, the state repaved I-5 through Marysville. This year, it takes that work farther north, giving the interstate an upgrade from Arlington to Conway, in Skagit County.
The long stretch means it will take two years’ worth of warm weather to knock off the task list.
“Some of this concrete is as old as the freeway,” said Lisa Van Cise, a WSDOT spokeswoman for the project.
It may not have quite the same impact as “Revive I-5” work through Seattle. But it’s not nothing.
“When you get into Seattle, you expect you’re going to be slower, especially during the commute times. But when you’re up farther north you, in general, expect things to run smoother,” Van Cise said. Lane closures “could cause delays for drivers who may not otherwise expect them.”
More details on the state projects:
I-5: Crews will repair and repave 10 miles, from the Stillaguamish River Bridge in Arlington to Hill Ditch Bridge in Skagit County, over two years. The section is nearly 60 years old in some locations, with cracks and wheel ruts. One lane will be closed around the clock when work is underway, with a second lane closed for some overnight work. All lanes will be open when work is not happening. $21.9 million.
U.S. 2: Monroe firm Lakeside Industries will repave three miles of the westbound lanes, from the I-5 interchange in Everett to Bickford Avenue in Snohomish. Eastbound lanes will be resurfaced from the Highway 204 interchange to Bickford Avenue. $7.8 million.
Highway 92: Fish passage will be improved at Little Pilchuck Creek with construction of a new 60-foot buried bridge, near North Machias Road. The work will require a 13-day full road closure and two full weekend closures. Work will be scheduled outside the school year and to avoid impact on fish runs. $6 million.
Highway 524: Two roundabouts will be added on either side of where the highway (also called Filbert Road) passes under I-405. Roundabouts will be added at Locust Way and Larch Way. The stretch has a high collision rate. Work will require a daytime closure for each intersection. $4.4 million.
Highway 9: Everett firm Granite Construction will install a single-lane roundabout at 108th Street NE to address collisions. The work will require two weekend-long closures, with detours of four miles to eight miles. There also will be single-lane closures overnight. $3.3 million.
Highway 530: Crews will grind and repave a 20-year-old, four-mile section, from the I-5 interchange to Highway 9 west of Arlington. Lane closures will be scheduled for overnight hours. Some side street intersections will have overnight closures with short detours. $2.8 million.
WSDOT will post closure dates for these and other local highway construction projects at www.wsdot.wa.gov/Northwest/Snohomish/Construction.
Find links with more project information with this story at www.heraldnet.com.
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