Date:  Saturday, August 25, 2007

Contact: WSDOT Communications, 206.440.4788 (Seattle)
WSDOT Public Hotline, (206) 440-4704 (Seattle)

SEATTLE – At 5:45 a.m., WSDOT contractor, Concrete Barrier Inc., pulled the last barrels on northbound I-5 through downtown Seattle opening lanes and ending the 14-day around-the-clock lane closures. Drivers now have a smoother and safer ride.

“We are thrilled to have this project completed ahead of time,” said WSDOT Interim Secretary of Transportation Paula Hammond. “Drivers helped, the contractor helped and the crews in the field worked very hard to get in, get the work done and get out.”

“What’s more,” added WSDOT Deputy Regional Administrator Bill Vlcek, “We had unprecedented cooperation from transit agencies and cities to keep traffic moving.”

Construction

During the 14-day closure, crews swarmed I-5 with as many as 85 people on the deck at a time. Drivers could see crews on the freeway around the clock breaking apart old concrete and pulling out 40-year-old expansion joints. They moved in with 34 new expansion joints and welded them in place.

Most of the expansion joint work was completed in the first ten days. Paving hit a rough patch mid-project with two drenching days of unseasonable rain. Crews anxious to work arrived at the work zone and waited for the giant 800-degree blow dryer to do its job. It was no match for Mother Nature. Crews couldn’t get back to paving until Wednesday morning, but made up for it with double teams.

By Saturday morning, crews paved 1.13 miles of northbound I-5 between Spokane St. and I-90 with durable polyester concrete. The relatively new, quick-drying material will extend the life of I-5 by another 30 years.

WSDOT engineers said the work could be done in 19 days but wrote $100,000-a-day incentives into the contract to get the work done a quickly as possible. “Our contractor did his part. The money was a good investment if it meant opening lanes on I-5 early to all drivers,” said Vlcek.

Traffic

WSDOT engineers say drivers deserve a big round of applause for the reduced traffic delays during the closure. While WSDOT did its part by letting drivers know what could happen if they didn’t change their plans, drivers did their part by doing something different.

“We needed more than half the drivers to take action, and they did,” said WSDOT Assistant Regional Administrator Dave McCormick. “And They rode the bus, they took Sounder, they took the water taxi, they took alternate routes, they left early, stayed late and took vacation.”

While it will take weeks to do a complete traffic analysis, here is a snapshot of where drivers who avoided construction on I-5 went:

• Transit ridership increased.  We are working with the transit agencies to crunch the ridership numbers and will release those numbers in the next few weeks.
• 25 percent took alternate state routes like Hwy 99 and I-405
• 25 percent took city streets like Airport Way South and 1st Ave. South
• A handful took other streets that were not measured

“The transit agencies helped us out by taking buses off I-5. Freight companies helped by staggering deliveries or doing deliveries at night in the off-peak hours,” said McCormick.

While the 20-mile backups never materialized, it is clear drivers were heading back to I-5 as the project progressed. Friday, Aug. 17 and Tuesday, Aug. 21 were the most congested days with 30+ minute commute times through the work zone. This demonstrates that lane closures are something drivers can handle for short periods of time, but eventually they want their lanes back.

Driver information

WSDOT asked drivers to use the traffic tools available to them on the WSDOT Web site and the travel hotline. They did.

• Between Aug. 6 and Aug. 24, more than 1500 people called the hotline. They asked about lane closures, traffic conditions, and trip planning. Thousands of other callers used the automated 511 system to get traffic and construction updates.
• Web page views of I-5 south Seattle traffic cameras jumped dramatically to as many as 42,000 per day. The I-5 Seattle project Web page averaged 7400 page views per day.

“I have been hearing the stories coming out of this project and what I find most gratifying is that Puget Sound drivers were willing to do something different for a couple weeks to help us get through this, but some are so satisfied taking the train or the bus or the water taxi, they may stick with it,” said Hammond. “And that certainly benefits everyone.”

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