Date:  Monday, February 08, 2010

Contact: Meghan Soptich Pembroke, WSDOT Communications, 206-440-4704 (Seattle)
Amir Ahmadi, WSDOT Project Engineer, 425-225-8725 (Everett)

Crews to set girders for pedestrian bridge over freeway

www.wsdot.wa.gov/construction/2010/today

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE – Drivers on northbound I-5 through Mountlake Terrace should add some extra time for their trips or plan to take an alternate route Tuesday through Thursday nights, Feb. 9-11.

Crews working on the $40.9 million Mountlake Terrace Freeway Station project will fully close northbound I-5 Tuesday night while they set bridge girders over the freeway. On Wednesday and Thursday, they’ll close up to three out of four northbound lanes overnight while they set girders on the right shoulder.

WSDOT and Sound Transit are building a freeway station in the I-5 median at 236th Street SW in Mountlake Terrace. The station will provide buses with direct access to and from the I-5 HOV lanes. An overhead, covered pedestrian bridge will connect the station to the Mountlake Terrace Park and Ride.

“We are on track to open the freeway station to buses and riders in early 2011,” said Amir Ahmadi, WSDOT project engineer. “With the girders in place, we’ll begin building the pedestrian bridge over I-5 to connect the freeway station and park and ride.”

Plan ahead to avoid delays

Crews will close multiple lanes of northbound I-5 for three nights to keep drivers safe as they lift the massive girders into place.

On Tuesday, Feb. 9:

• Crews will fully close northbound I-5 between SR 104 (NE 205th Street/244th Street SW) in Mountlake Terrace and 220th Street SW in Lynnwood. The first lane will close at 7 p.m., with all lanes closed by 11:30 p.m. Crews will also close the on-ramp from SR 104 at 10 p.m.
• Drivers will be detoured to northbound SR 99 and will reconnect with northbound I-5 via the 220th Street SW on-ramp.
• Crews will also close the off-ramp to 236th Avenue SW at 10 p.m. Drivers will follow a detour using 244th Street SW and 56th Avenue West.
• The ramps and three right lanes will reopen by 6 a.m. Wednesday. The HOV lane will reopen by 10 a.m.

On Wednesday, Feb. 10 and Thursday, Feb. 11:

• Crews will close up to three right lanes of northbound I-5 from just north of 244th Street SW to 220th Street SW beginning at 8 p.m.
• Crews will also close the on-ramp from SR 104 to northbound I-5 at 8 p.m.
• All lanes and ramps will reopen by 6 a.m. the following morning.

During Tuesday night’s closure, crews will set two140-foot-long, 80-ton girders in place over the northbound lanes. On Wednesday and Thursday, they’ll set four more girders on bridge piers on the right shoulder of the freeway. Those girders range from 87 to 102 feet in length and weigh between 50 and 57 tons. The girders will support the new pedestrian bridge and connection to the park and ride on the east side of the freeway

The Mountlake Terrace Freeway Station is the fifth direct access ramp project in Snohomish County undertaken as a partnership between Sound Transit and WSDOT, and the second facility built in the freeway median following the South Everett Freeway Station, a park-and-ride and flyer stop that opened in September 2008.

For more information and a detour map, visit www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/i5/mountlaketerrace.

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