LYNNWOOD — Concrete pillars, massive girders and towers of rebar are rising out of I-5’s median here, creating a puzzle for commuters to mull over as they buzz through the city.
If it’s an exit ramp, why are they building it in the middle of the freeway?
Is it the beginnings of a new, elevated express lane?
Will it be a monument to the gasoline tanker truck that exploded at the site last month?
Just what are they building in the middle of the freeway at 44th Avenue W. and at 164th Street SW?
Sound Transit and the state Department of Transportation are in the throes of building special exit and entrance ramps that will allow bus and carpool traffic to exit from the carpool lanes directly into park-and-ride lots located at both sites.
“These are footings,” said Steve Strand, the state’s project inspector at the 44th Avenue W. site. “We put the last one up today.”
The footings, like everything involved in the two projects, are large.
They are rectangular structures that “like the foundation in your home,” will support the quarter-mile ramp that will get traffic from the park-and-ride to the middle of the freeway, Strand said.
The girders are the beginning of a bridge over 44th Avenue W., while the pillars and rebar are part of the structures that will support the ramps that will get buses and carpooling commuters onto the freeway.
Once built, drivers will find a stop sign at the top of both ramps, Strand said. At 44th Avenue W. drivers will be able to go north or south, while at 164th Avenue SW and Ash Way they will be directed only to a southward ramp. Sound Transit plans to add a northbound ramp at the 164th Avenue and Ash Way when traffic northward picks up.
The $50-million ramps are expected to cut most round-trip bus commutes from Snohomish County to Seattle by up to 30 minutes.
The extra minutes come from buses not having to cut across all lanes of traffic to exit from the HOV lane and then from not having to weave through congested arterial streets before stopping at the two park-and-ride lots, said Dawn McIntosh, construction project engineer for the 44th Avenue W. project.
“The big thing is to provide rapid access on and off,” she said.
And construction at both sites has been booming, especially at the 44th Avenue W. site, where the new direct access ramp is supposed to open in fall 2004, nine months ahead of schedule.
The less complicated fly-over ramp at 164th Street SW and Ash Way is also expected to open in the fall of next year. It’s on schedule.
Construction started at the two sites in April. When completed they will become Sound Transit’s first direct access ramps, said spokesman Lee Somerstein.
Funded by Sound Transit, the cost of the two ramps nearly doubles the amount the transit agency has spent in Snohomish County since voters helped create it in 1996. Sound Transit has spent $54 million here since 1997, mainly on bus routes and park-and-ride lots.
The 44th Avenue W. structure price tag is $31.2 million while the 164th Street SW and Ash Way ramp will cost $18.4 million.
The need to build a bridge over 44th Avenue W. makes that project more expensive, while the lack of a northbound ramps at 164th Street SW and Ash Way make that project cheaper.
Lukas Velush is a reporter at the Herald in Everett.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
