Westbound I-90 in Seattle closed this weekend
Oct 7, 2015, 6:07 PM | Updated: Oct 10, 2015, 8:30 am
(WSDOT image)
(WSDOT image)
Drivers had the summer off, but full-directional closures resume on I-90 this weekend while Washington State Department Transportation crews prepare to add HOV lanes to the outer roadway.
Starting Friday night, westbound I-90 is closed between Mercer Island and Seattle. All drivers will be squeezed into the Express Lanes across the lake until 5 a.m. on Monday.
“We’ll see heavier traffic on 520, heavier traffic on I-405 around the end of the lake, and obviously some pretty significant backups on I-90 out toward the Factoria and Issaquah areas,” WSDOT’s Annie Johnson said.
This is the sixth full-directional closure on I-90. Only one exit remains open to Mercer Island — East Mercer Way — but Johnson said this time WSDOT will allow drivers to get to Island Crest Way.
“Drivers will still exit at East Mercer Way, but instead of the majority of the traffic taking a left at the end of the ramp, they will also have an option to continue straight back on the on-ramp to westbound I-90 and get off at Island Crest Way,” she said.
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These closures, all 30 of them, are necessary so WSDOT can add an HOV lane in both the east and westbound lanes of I-90. Sound Transit East Link light rail will take the center lanes for light rail in 2017.
WSDOT says most of the work this weekend happens inside the Mount Baker tunnel and Mercer Island lid, out of the view of drivers.
“The lighting is all being upgraded,” Bruce Gray with Sound Transit said.
“The fire life-safety systems are all being upgraded. People might not notice it because you go through there in two seconds, it seems like, but there’s an incredible amount of infrastructure our (contractors) have to go in and upgrade to make sure those tunnels are going to be safe for trains and for vehicles.”
The closure may impact drivers headed to the International Auto Show at CenturyLink Field Events Center and GeekGirlCon at the Washington State Convention Center. But there are no Seahawks, Huskies or Sounders games this weekend.
Four more weekend-long directional closures are scheduled before the end of the year.
