I-5, Ash Way Park & Ride Direct Access

Send us your feedback on this project.

Snohomish County
This project is located along Interstate 5 north of the city of Lynnwood at Ash Way and 164th Street Southwest.  We are building a new transit-only bridge and ramps that connect the Ash Way Park & Ride parking lot to I-5 carpool lanes to and from the south.

The new transit ramps connecting the Ash Way Park & Ride lot to I-5 will carry 160 Community Transit and Sound Transit Regional Express buses each work day.  This will increase transit bus speed and reliability.  Current estimates show that transit riders will save an average of 12 and a half minutes per roundtrip.  These buses will no longer weave through freeway traffic, which improves traffic flow for all commuters traveling I-5 through Lynnwood.  In addition, the project includes a new filter system that will treat storm water and protect local streams.

Design: Construction: Schedule: Cost: Engineer's estimate: $11,600,000 Contractor's bid amount: $7,569,906 Anticipated final payment to contractor: A number of contract items are subject to review, therefore, no estimated final cost is being provided.

Construction Summary
We originally planned to build a box girder bridge over southbound I-5, which would require low clearance construction and a detour for over height trucks. We tested a safety system that had been used with success in other locations within Washington State. To do this we placed required signs and gave advance notice of the mandatory detour. We also installed a state-of-the-art laser detection and safety alarm system. When we tested this system in January 2004 it became clear that some truck drivers were not complying with the required detour and, if construction proceeded, would endanger themselves, nearby vehicles and construction workers. 

Although WSDOT designed this bridge in compliance with state and federal design standards, it is now clear that this design was not the best fit for this particular area. It also became clear that these state and federal design standards must be reevaluated and updated to take into account changed driver behavior. Because of this, we suspended bridge construction work for more than two months to analyze safer construction alternatives.

After exhaustive analysis, we eliminated the bridge from the current Ash Way Direct Access contract in March 2004. This allowed the majority of the work to be completed, while WSDOT redesigned and advertised bids for  a new contract for the bridge only.

The bridge issues caused delays to WSDOT and the contractor, Tri-State Construction. WSDOT and Tri-State continue to work together to complete the initial contract work on time. The two sides have yet to agree on a final cost for the project.

The bridge contract is currently being advertised for contractors' bids. We expect construction to begin in spring 2005 and be completed by September 2005. The total cost for these two contracts combined will be $2 million over the original $14 million budget. The new bridge will open to traffic one year late. Cost increases and delays are directly linked to bridge design, construction and contract administration.

We are now  $1,402,114 million over our  $7,569,906 construction budget. 

Contractor:
Tri-State Construction, Bellevue, WA

WSDOT Contact:

Amir Ahmadi, Project Engineer

Phone 425-339-1702

E-mail: ahmadia@wsdot.wa.gov

More information on the I-5, Ash Way Transit Direct Access project.

Send us your feedback on this project.

back to top