Latest news with #TomPearce
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
Expect major I-5 delays: Ship Canal Bridge construction starts this summer
This story was originally published on We're just a few weeks away from the Summer of Ship Canal Bridge construction. You're going to need to prepare for significant delays through Seattle. Northbound I-5 is going to be a mess in the middle of the prime summer driving season because the Ship Canal Bridge is getting a serious makeover. Approximately 20% of the bridge deck will be repaired and resurfaced over the summer, work that is long overdue. 'It's work that needs to be done,' Tom Pearce, communications consultant with WSDOT, said. 'The Ship Canal Bridge is 60 years old. We've been out to do repairs more than 200 times in the last five years on the bridge, both northbound and southbound, and we need to get in there and do more work so that we can preserve the bridge.' On the weekend of June 20, the northbound Ship Canal Bridge will be reduced to just two lanes, but that's just the appetizer. All northbound lanes will be closed across the bridge the weekend of July 18, and that will be followed by four straight weeks of construction, where only two lanes of the bridge will be open. A final full-weekend closure is set for the weekend of Aug. 15. 'This is going to be a really challenging project for us and for the public,' Pearce said. 'We recognize that for people who are traveling. This is going to create some headaches.' Expect this to have a regional impact. 'This is really going to affect everybody who travels, usually along I-5, because whenever you reduce lanes, all those people still have to go somewhere,' Pearce said. The northbound express lanes will be open the entire time of these closures, which will impact the southbound morning commute as well. The plan had been to do this work over several months, but that was scrapped by budget issues earlier this year. This smaller-scale work was set up to try and get ahead of the work that's coming next year. 'Doing the work this year gives us a head start so that we can be sure to have things wrapped up in time to open the whole bridge during the World Cup,' Pearce said. WSDOT hasn't figured out how and when it will do the southbound repair work on the Ship Canal Bridge. That is expected later this year, but it's not expected to be a week-long closure at this point.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Yahoo
Four full closures for SR 529 coming in May
This story was originally published on Heads up, Marysville and Everett. State Route 529 (SR 529) is not going to be a reliable way to make that connection in May. Four full highway closures are on next month's schedule, starting this weekend. The northbound Steamboat Slough bridge is 98 years old. The southbound bridge is more than 70 years old. It's time to get inside them and fix the guts. 'They've both been around a long time, and they both need to get this work done to make sure that they can continue to function,' Tom Pearce, a communications specialist with the Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT), said. Unlike previous weekend closures, these closures will last four days each, from Friday night through Tuesday night. 'The work that our contractor is doing requires four days,' Pearce said. 'They need to get into the bridge and do some mechanical work on the locking mechanism and make sure that everything else is working fine. It just takes time to complete all that work.' You might not realize it, but maritime traffic relies on this bridge opening. 'These bridges only open about 30 times a year, but federal law does require us to maintain them,' Pearce said. 'If marine traffic wants to go through, marine traffic actually has the right of way in this area.' The first two four-day closures begin at 11 p.m. Friday night. This will be a closure of the northbound span. Southbound will remain open. The closure will last until 11 p.m. Tuesday. Northbound drivers will still be able to access Smith Island via 28th Place NE. 'During the first two weekends, people will be able to go northbound onto Smith Island on SR 529, but they'll have to take southbound to leave the island,' Pearce added. The first two closures will be northbound. This weekend and next weekend. The southbound closures are scheduled for the third and fifth weekends of the month. There will be no work or closures over the Memorial Day weekend. Approximately 19,000 vehicles use the Steamboat Bridge each day. I-5 is the primary alternate. Chris Sullivan is a traffic reporter for KIRO Newsradio. Read more of his stories here. Follow KIRO Newsradio traffic on X.
