Construction workers this Easter weekend will break and replace worn-out concrete panels in the northbound lanes of Interstate 5, causing traffic jams in South Seattle.
Three lanes will close from the Albro-Swift exit to the Michigan Street exit, from 10 p.m. Friday, March 29, until 4 a.m. Monday, April 1, the Washington State Department of Transportation announced.
Based on similar southbound repairs, drivers can expect at least two miles of slow or stopped traffic as they approach the work zone.
Two right-side lanes, and the exit ramps, will remain open. The entrance lanes that rise from Michigan Street to northbound I-5 (referred to as Bailey Street onramp by WSDOT) will be closed.
This is the sixth of 13 weekend operations during 2024 in South Seattle and Tukwila. More than 700 concrete panels have been replaced this year.
Besides lane restrictions, traffic will be thickened by family trips, Seattle Mariners games against the Boston Red Sox on Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon, the Sakura-Con anime festival at the Seattle Convention Center all weekend, and Saturday’s Monster Jam truck exhibition at Lumen Field.
To escape congestion, baseball fans can take the Sounder commuter train to Sunday’s Mariners game. Trains leave Lakewood at 10:11 a.m. and Everett at 10:45 a.m. Return trains leave King Street Station 45 minutes after the game. Full schedules are at www.soundtransit.org.
Other options include hopping onto light rail at Tukwila International Boulevard or Angle Lake park-and-ride stations, or skipping I-5 in favor of driving Duwamish Valley highways 599 from Tukwila or 509 from Burien.
In other traffic alerts, starting Monday night, the city of Shoreline will begin a seven-month project to renovate Northeast 145th Street next to I-5 and the Shoreline South/148th light rail station opening this fall. Drivers will not be able to use 145th to reach the southbound I-5 merge ramp, nor go west from the I-5 interchange into 145th. (A walk-bike route will still exist.) Detour routes go under the freeway at North 155th Street, or over the freeway in Seattle, at Northeast 130th Street.
Drivers leaving the city should be on alert for reduced speeds on Highway 101 near Sequim, and Highway 8 in Grays Harbor County, where fish-passage projects are under construction. There will also be weekday single-lane closures of the I-90 Columbia River bridge at Vantage, which will undergo major repairs.
