The first week of what the Washington State Department of Transportation is calling the “South King Slowdown” on southbound Interstate 5 in SeaTac and Des Moines is in the books, the agency said Monday in a statement.
For the most part, drivers heeded the warnings and used alternate routes or mass transit, keeping the longest backups to about four miles and creating delays of about 30 minutes.
During the weekend lane reductions, contractor crews working for WSDOT replaced 48 concrete panels with asphalt and repaved 2.7 miles of the interstate. All lanes were open on schedule, by 5 a.m. Monday.
“We want to thank drivers for their patience during this work,” said WSDOT Traffic Engineer Mike Swires in the statement. “Because drivers used alternatives, it limited backups and delays on I-5. We saw more delays on I-405 between Bellevue and Renton, but traffic moved well on state routes 99, 167 and 509. We need drivers to keep using those alternatives.”
According to WSDOT, the weekend-long lane reductions are necessary to do work that cannot be completed during overnight shifts. Much of the project work is still being done during overnight lane reductions, and crews have used those since March to replace concrete panels, grind the interstate to eliminate ruts and perform other maintenance work.
The overnight lane reductions will continue into 2017, but the weekend lane reductions will last four more weeks. The next reduction, which reduces southbound I-5 south of Seattle to two lanes, is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. Friday, July 22.
Crews will be replacing concrete panels with asphalt and repaving the three left lanes from South 188th Street in SeaTac to State Route 516 in Des Moines.
The work, which is weather-dependent, will be complete by 5 a.m. on Monday, July 25.
Officials say drivers can help the roadwork process by planning ahead:
• Allow extra time to travel through work zones or on alternate routes.
• Ride transit, carpool or use other form of transportation.
• Travel early in the morning, before 9 a.m., or later in the evening, after 9 p.m., or reschedule discretionary trips.
• Check the Seattle Traffic page for updated traffic conditions.
