Date:  Friday, October 21, 2011

Contact: Meagan McFadden, WSDOT communications, 509-577-1618 (Yakima)
Bob Hooker, WSDOT assistant project engineer, 509-577-1840 (Yakima)

HYAK – The delays drivers experienced this week on Interstate 90 over Snoqualmie Pass are over. The new eastbound lanes opened to traffic just after 7 a.m. today.

The Washington State Department of Transportation and contractor crews worked around the clock this week to pave transitions between old and new eastbound lanes. Today thousands of drivers who travel over the pass every day will find a new, wider eastbound highway and bridges between Hyak (milepost 54) and Rocky Run Creek (milepost 57).

Crews also wrapped up rock blasting for winter and plan to be off the road by early November.

Since March, WSDOT and its contractor, Max J. Kuney Company, have worked hard to:
• Build bridges at Gold Creek (milepost 56) and Rocky Run Creek (milepost 57)
• Pour more than 11,000 cubic yards of concrete for the new eastbound lanes
• Remove nearly 500,000 cubic yards of rock-blasting rubble

This portion of the project is scheduled to be complete in 2013 and will improve the first three miles of the five-mile I-90 project from Hyak (milepost 55) to the Keechelus Lake snowshed (milepost 58).

Newly signed contractor Guy F. Atkinson Construction started work in September on the final two miles of the I-90 project from the Keechelus Lake snowshed (milepost 58) to the Keechelus Dam vicinity (milepost 60). Major construction begins in the spring and is scheduled to be complete in 2017.

WSDOT and contractor crews also are rehabilitating approximately nine miles of deteriorated pavement on eastbound I-90 between Cle Elum and Easton. They plan to be off the road for the winter by mid-November with completion in 2012. This summer crews also repaired a five-mile section of deteriorated asphalt between Price Creek and Easton Hill.

For more information on other projects on I-90 east of Snoqualmie Pass please visit www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/i90/whatshappening


Hyperlinks within the news release:
• I-90 Project website: www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/I90/SnoqualmiePassEast/HyaktoKeechelusDam/

• Lake Easton to Big Creek project website:
www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/i90/lkeastontobigcreekeb

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