Double-trouble for drivers due to work on two Seattle-area freeways

Deborah Horne
·3 min read
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The goal of this Saturday was to find another way around downtown Seattle in order to avoid the gridlock caused by work on two major freeways.

It’s double-trouble for those trying to get around the Emerald City this weekend. State Route 520 across Lake Washington is off-limits to vehicles all weekend long. And traffic is down to just a couple of lanes southbound on Interstate 5 as expansion joint work continues.

This is something drivers just have to include in their summer plans.

Officials at the Washington State Department of Transportation say to absolutely plan ahead. You can see why on I-5 — in fact, traffic is gridlocked all around I-5 today.

And it isn’t going to get any better the rest of the summer.

It hardly mattered where you drove around Seattle on this sunny summer Saturday. Traffic was a mess.

Anisa Khoshbakhtian of Seattle noted that there was “more traffic” on the road today, and even “more in downtown.” She added, “It seems like it’s getting back to normal, which may be a good thing.”

But not if getting around the Emerald City on I-5 is part of your weekend plans. The freeway is down to a couple of lanes south of downtown so crews can continue to replace aging expansion joints, work that a WSDOT spokesman says must go on.

“Summer is really construction season around here because it’s really the only time we can reliably expect good weather,” said WSDOT’s Tom Pearce. “We had some work scheduled in May and even in June, but we had to postpone because of weather. And then we had another project that we could not work that weekend.”

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Add state Route 520 to the list of projects, too. The highway is closed to traffic this weekend due to foundation work being done on a new lid. Pearce says the best thing you can do all summer long is plan ahead.

“Think if you can take an alternative route,” advised Pearce. “If you’re up in the north end and you’re going south to Seattle, 405 might be a way to go.”

There are also buses and underground light rail which run through the downtown core.

Alternatively, you could follow this family’s lead by getting around on a scooter.

“So I saw these, and I was like, ‘So we can get on those for cheaper?’” said Sarah Hernandez of Murrieta, California, in reference to her scooter. “Let’s go!”

“Yeah, right across the street actually,” her partner, Noah Carney, said. “We’re right there. So we’re done after this.”

Their smiles say it all. Sadly, we are not done with this. Both I-5 and state Route 520 are set to reopen at 5 a.m. Monday.

But next weekend, they will “Revive I-5″ again until the end of September.

You’ve been warned.