Date:
Friday, December 15, 2006
Contact:
Carl Barker, Acting Project Engineer, (425) 489-5403 (Bothell)
Laura Johnson, WSDOT Communications, (206) 716-1165 (Seattle)
BOTHELL – Drivers on Interstate 405 in Bothell will notice a change overhead starting next week. Weather permitting, crews plan to begin setting girders for the new pedestrian bridge over the freeway at the Canyon Park Park-and-Ride.
On Monday night, Dec. 18, crews will close the ramp from northbound SR 527 to southbound I-405 at 9 p.m. The ramp from southbound SR 527 to southbound I-405 will be reduced to one lane. A signed detour will direct drivers north on I-405 and I-5, and they will turn around at 164th Street SW and head back south. All lanes on the ramps will reopen by 5 a.m. Tuesday.
On Tuesday night, Dec. 19, crews will close all southbound I-405 lanes at the SR 527 interchange. The first lane will close at 10 p.m., the second at 11 p.m., and all lanes will be closed by midnight. The ramp from southbound SR 527 to southbound I-405 will also be closed starting at 10 p.m., but the ramp from northbound SR 527 to southbound I-405 will remain open. Traffic will be detoured off southbound I-405 using the exit to SR 527, and will re-enter the freeway using the ramp from northbound SR 527. All southbound I-405 lanes and the southbound SR 527 to southbound I-405 ramp will reopen by 5 a.m. Wednesday.
The Monday night ramp closure is required to set three girders adjacent to southbound I-405. Those three girders will ramp down to the site of a new bus stop along the ramp from northbound SR 527 to southbound I-405. Although these girders do not span the ramp, the closure is required to make room for the equipment needed to set the girders, and to keep drivers at a safe distance from the work.
During the total southbound I-405 closure on Tuesday night, crews will set a single 124-foot-long, 80-ton concrete girder that will span all lanes of southbound I-405 and the southbound I-405 on-ramp from southbound SR 527.
In the case of ice or significant winds, the girder setting will be delayed until the next night with safe weather conditions. Crews plan to set two more girders on the northbound side of I-405 in January, which will require partial and total nighttime closures of northbound I-405.
All of this work is associated with Sound Transit’s I-405 Bothell/Canyon Park Freeway Station Project, designed and built by WSDOT. A covered pedestrian bridge over the freeway will provide access from the Canyon Park Park-and-Ride to a new bus stop on the southbound I-405 on-ramp from northbound SR 527. The new transit stop will allow southbound buses to avoid the existing circuitous route through congested city streets to access the Canyon Park Park-and-Ride. The improvements will save transit users up to five minutes per trip. For more information, please visit www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/i405/CanyonPark.
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