Date:
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Contact:
Hien Trinh, WSDOT Project Engineer, 425-956-2100 (Bellevue)
Greg Phipps, WSDOT Communications, 206-440-4702 (Seattle)
REDMOND – SR 202 drivers in Redmond are getting a special Valentine's Day treat from WSDOT -- an extra lane to ease Thursday night's commute.
Crews working for WSDOT opened a new lane on eastbound SR 202 from East Lake Sammamish Parkway in Redmond, to Sahalee Way in unincorporated King County. They expect to open a new westbound lane Friday if the good weather streak continues.
"Our door has nearly been pounded down with requests to get these lanes open as quickly as possible," said Project Engineer Hien Trinh. "The project is already a year ahead of schedule, but we pushed even harder to deliver the new lanes to Redmond commuters, given the curve balls Mother Nature has been throwing at us since October."
Temperatures warmed up without any precipitation this week, allowing crews to apply temporary striping to the new eastbound lane on SR 202. Although eastbound striping work is complete, crews will come back tomorrow to finish striping the new westbound section before opening it. Driver should note that lane closures will continue periodically throughout the work zone until the project wraps up this summer.
"We've still got a lot of work ahead of us, including signals at Sahalee Way, wall, median and landscaping work, sign installation, and paving." Trinh said. "We will come back in the spring to put a final layer of asphalt and permanent striping on SR 202 between 188th Avenue NE and Sahalee Way. We will need single lane closures for some of these items, and we'll reduce the road to one lane in each direction again to complete the paving work."
As of today, drivers can turn left again onto 204th Place NE from eastbound SR 202. Crews activated the signal and were able to place the stop bars on the pavement.
Through this $82.7 million project, crews are widening SR 202 from SR 520 to Sahalee Way. This project will wrap up a year ahead of schedule. For specific details, please visit the project Web site at: www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/SR202/SR520_Sahalee/
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