Northbound I-5 paving in South King County reaches midway milestone

Crews break for Independence Day, weekend work resumes July 7

June 28, 2017 1:30 pm
WSDOT is rehabilitating about 10 miles of northbound I-5 from South 260th Street in Des Moines to the Duwamish River. COURTESY MAP, WSDOT

Asphalt paving on northbound Interstate 5 to #reviveI5 in SeaTac and Tukwila is halfway finished after three weekends of lane reductions. Three more weekends with the interstate reduced to two lanes are needed to complete the paving, starting Friday night, July 7.

No work will take place the weekend of June 30-July 3 to keep the interstate open for holiday travelers.

During three weekends in June, contractor crews working for the Washington State Department of Transportation made substantial progress on northbound I-5 between State Route 516 in SeaTac and South 170th Street in Tukwila:

• Breaking concrete in all lanes to prepare for repaving along the four-mile section.

• Paving nearly 3,000 dump truck loads of asphalt – approximately 43,000 tons of pavement.

• Replacing 88 broken concrete panels near SR 516.

“Our contractor crews have accomplished a lot, even though one weekend they had to stop working for half a day because of rain,” WSDOT Project Engineer Mike Askarian said. “We are on schedule to complete the paving in mid-August, and we’ll be able to finish all the paving and striping in this section before winter.”

More weekend paving

To finish the second half of the paving, three more weekends are scheduled when northbound I-5 will be reduced to two lanes between SR 516 and South 170th Street:

• July 7-10 and 14-17

• Aug. 11-14

• Lanes will begin closing at 8 p.m. each Friday and reopen by 5 a.m. each Monday.

• The work is weather-dependent and could be postponed by rain

Additional lane reductions for expansion joints

When paving is complete, work will shift to replace expansion joints and repair the bridge decks of the Interurban Avenue overpass and the Duwamish River Bridge above I-5. This will require two weekend-long lane reductions in later this summer or fall, and two more in the first half of 2018.

Concrete panel replacement and other work will continue during weeknight lane reductions, which will last until the project is complete in summer 2018.

Reviving I-5

By next summer, northbound I-5 between South 260th Street in Kent and the Duwamish River will have about 440 new panels, four miles of new asphalt pavement, and eight new expansion joints at Interurban Avenue and the Duwamish River. Additionally, concrete grinding will eliminate ruts on five miles of the highway. When finished, the pavement on this stretch of I-5 will last longer and travelers will have a much smoother ride.