Commuters heading north on I-5 were unexpectedly snagged in four miles of gridlock Tuesday morning after construction crews took too long to wrap up their nightly repaving work through Everett.
“It added a delay of approximately 40 minutes for northbound traffic,” state Department of Transportation spokesman Ryan Bianchi said. “That’s not supposed to happen. That’s when people are going to work, and we try really hard to get them off the road and let people get to work on time.”
During the nighttime repaving work, only one lane is open to traffic. All freeway lanes are supposed to be reopened by 6 a.m., according to the contract with the state, Bianchi said.
The contractor made a mistake and crews took too long putting down temporary lane striping, Bianchi said. The contractor didn’t reopen the freeway lanes until 7:07 a.m., well into the Tuesday morning commute.
“We’ll definitely be keeping an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Bianchi said.
The repaving work is part of the $263 million project to add six miles of HOV lanes from Highway 526 to the Snohomish River bridge.
Crews are grinding down old pavement, patching cracks and the road base and installing traffic sensors that will allow the state to show freeway traffic conditions on the state’s traffic Web site.
Reporter Jeff Switzer: 425-339-3452 or jswitzer@heraldnet.com.
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