Reminder: Ramps to West Seattle Bridge from southbound I-5, Beacon Hill closed this weekend

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More than a month after first word of the Spokane Street Interchange Vicinity Bridge Repair project – its first weekend of closures is almost here, 10 pm Friday night to 5 am Monday morning. WSDOT sends this reminder, with detour details spelled out if you had trouble figuring out the maps they posted in November:

Starting Friday night, crews working for the Washington State Department of Transportation will close the ramp from southbound Interstate 5 to the West Seattle Bridge and the westbound Columbian Way ramp to the West Seattle Bridge. Detours are in place.

This is the first of 11 weekend-long ramp closures to replace 31 aging expansion joints on the I-5/West Seattle Interchange.

Drivers can prepare for this and the next 10 closures by checking the website in advance. The WSDOT website has detailed list of closed ramps and weekend dates as well as detour maps available to print or download.

Ramp closure details and detours

· The ramp from southbound Interstate 5 to the West Seattle Bridge and the ramp from westbound Columbian Way ramp to the West Seattle Bridge will close at 10 p.m. Friday, Jan. 4 and reopen at 5 a.m. Monday, Jan. 7.

· Southbound drivers can access the West Seattle Bridge by using the Forest Street exit and following the signed detour to First Avenue South. Drivers can also use State Route 99.

· Drivers from Beacon Hill can take the Sixth Avenue South ramp and connect with Lander Street.

“Locals know this area and they have their own short cuts,” said Aleta Borschowa, WSDOT project engineer. “We expect West Seattle drivers to take Highway 99, First Avenue South and Fourth Avenue South to get around. Just remember that many drivers have that same plan, and it will be busy.”
To help drivers get through the construction closure, WSDOT engineers have worked with the city of Seattle to retime the signals and cancel construction work on approved detour routes. Truck traffic near the Port of Seattle is expected to be light.

During the week, these ramps carry more than 20,000 vehicles each day, but daily traffic volumes on this interchange drop by more than 50 percent during the weekend. Engineers scheduled the work on the weekend to take advantage of this light traffic.

See the full calendar-coded map of closures – which ramps on which weekends – by going here.

Colleen January 3, 2013 (4:22 pm)

I have a more down the road question – how do the closures match with the “check how far its sunk” viaduct closure that is usually in March?

WSB January 3, 2013 (4:25 pm)

The date for that isn’t usually set till they get a lot closer (we watch the grids for early word of the major closures, even before the formal news releases come out). But WSDOT is the same agency responsible for both and even during the coordination of Spokane St. Viaduct project closures with SDOT, they worked to coordinate so for example you wouldn’t have a southbound Viaduct and southbound I-5 exit closure the same weekend.

JayDee January 3, 2013 (6:30 pm)

Using a Dave Matthews line I used to recite that I was the smartest monkey when it came to detours. Well, if I was, I have plenty of smart monkey company now.

Perhaps the smartest monkey now stays home or south of the I-90 interchange…the tough one will be the I-5 NB on-ramp closure…or for that matter SB…

WSDOT_Pro January 4, 2013 (8:31 am)

SR 99 is a good alternate route this weekend; we don’t have any other planned construction there. Also, the City of Seattle cleared all construction-related lane closures off the Lander St. to First Ave. S. detour route this weekend. You can keep tabs on traffic slowdowns and construction progress on Twitter: http://twitter.com/wsdot

tsm3 January 4, 2013 (12:39 pm)

Slightly offtopic: I’m grateful for the widened viaduct. However, is there a reason for the really shoddy set of ruts (from old lanes, dividers) and patches on the concrete viaduct surface after all the time spent working on it? All the ruts get filled with water during the rain making it pretty unsafe as far as I can tell. Is there a plan to smoothen things out?

GaryS January 6, 2013 (10:06 am)

The New, Improved First Avenue S offramp-onramp on West Seattle Bridge is a head-on collision in waiting.
Looking forward to future design upgrades from DOT.

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