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The state isn’t waiting very long for the first construction closure of the year. The State Route 520 Bridge will be closed this weekend.

The confetti is still on the floor, but that isn’t stopping the (WSDOT) from getting right back to work. SR 520 will be closed between 92nd on the east side of the lake and Interstate 5 all weekend.

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The contractor is installing more girders on the growing Montlake Lid and pouring concrete on the new eastbound connection from Montlake to the floating bridge.

“It will be a typical 55-hour weekend closure,” WSDOT’s Steve Peer said. The closure begins Friday night at 11 p.m. and lasts through 5 a.m. Monday morning.

This will be one of those closures that extends all the way to I-5, so you will not have access between Montlake and I-5 like we do on some closure weekends. To get you ready for that, the ramp from Montlake to westbound SR 520 will be closed overnight, both Wednesday and Thursday. Those closures will be between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. on both nights.

The contractor is building a tunnel under Montlake Boulevard that will extend the SR 520 Trail.

This is going to be a very busy year for the SR 520 project, as the contractor puts the finishing touches on the new eastbound connection to the floating bridge. Work to add the reversible lane between SR 520 and the I-5 express lanes will continue.

But Peer said this is just the middle portion of this entire corridor project.

“We have about nine years of construction ahead of us,” Peer said. “The Montlake Project will wrap up in late 2023 or early 2024, just in time to start the Portage Bay project.”

But we’re getting there.

Drivers should get that second lane to I-5 from westbound SR 520 by the end of February or early March, so the morning delays on westbound SR 520 should ease in the first quarter of this year.

Check out more of Chris’ Chokepoints.