LYNNWOOD — Safety and traffic flow on I-5 at the 196th Street exit spurred the Washington State Department of Transportation to embark on a $33.7 million project. The project began last August and is expected to finish in December 2011.
WSDOT has produced a video about the project to give drivers a better idea of how the new “braided ramp” plan is expected to eliminate lane weaving and ease congestion at this busy interchange.
New on-and off-ramps are being built on southbound I-5 in Lynnwood. The new on-ramp from SR 525 and I-405 will be elevated over a new off-ramp to 196th Street Southwest. From above, this ramp configuration resembles a braid.
The new ramps will separate traffic merging from I-405 and SR 525 to southbound I-5 from traffic exiting southbound I-5 to 196th Street Southwest.
Currently the interchange has traffic exiting at 196th Street, causing severe backups onto southbound I-5 with fast traffic mixing with slower traffic moving to exit at 196th Street. This mixing leads to rear-end and sideswipe collisions.
With the braided ramp configuration, drivers exiting to 196th Street from southbound I-5 will be separated from the traffic entering southbound I-5 from SR 525 and I-405.
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