A major transportation artery into Capitol Hill will be reopened Thursday morning marking the end of a year-long project to prepare Interstate 5 for the light rail tunnels connecting downtown to Capitol Hill.
In a media tour of the end point in the Seattle transit tunnel that will eventually connect to the light rail route, Sound Transit officials said that the Olive Way exit from northbound I-5 will be re-opened at 5 AM Thursday. The opening comes almost exactly a year after the offramp was closed as Sound Transit contractors began digging massive pits below the I-5 roadway to remove support pilings and poor soil that would hinder the light rail tunnel boring machine when it makes its journey beneath this area of the city as early as the end of next year. The $19.7 million project also involved cutting “windows” into the I-5 retaining walls beneath the Olive Way Exit for the tunnel boring machine to pass through as it completes the 3.15-mile route between downtown and the University of Washington.
Meanwhile, the Cherry St. onramp to north I-5 should also be reopened now that the Olive Way Exit work is complete.
During the Olive Way closure, most drivers used the Madison or James offramps as alternate routes to the Hill and many pedestrians enjoyed the easy crossing in front of the closed ramp as they made their way up or downhill on Olive Way.
Contractors on the $1.9 billion University Link light rail project are currently preparing the construction area on Broadway between Thomas and John for around-the-clock tunneling that will begin in 2011. Sound Transit was recently approved for a large project noise variance that will allow nighttime work on the project. The agency says the 24-hour schedule is necessary because it’s not safe to start and re-start the tunnel boring machine and that the project would take longer and subsequently cost more without the nighttime work. The 10 to 20-foot plywood construction noise walls around the Broadway site were recently painted a deep red as part of Sound Transit’s community art program.
As Wednesday morning’s tour, Sound Transit’s Rick Capka said the re-opening of the Olive Way exit was a milestone worthy of celebration. Capka, a resident engineer for Sound Transit, said the project was completed on time and under budget — and is a big step toward the start of tunneling and completing the University Link project on time.
Service is expected to begin in 2016.
Sound Transit took me and a camera person from every TV station in town underground to see this wall at the end of the transit tunnel.
that madison route was torture during peak hours!
I will once again appreciate the convenience of the Olive Way exit.
I will once again rue the excessive noise from so many vehicles and, especially, trucks, and especially those of QFC and Safeway which have a habit of making their trip early on a weekend morning. Where are we with electric truck development?
Sigh.
I wonder what the prepped area under I-5 looks like on the other side of that wall in the photo.
Did the engineers describe what it looks like?
Is it a void? A big space filled with sand? Or what?
Directly on the other side of the wall is dirt as I understand it. The contractors will dig from above on the other side of the retaining wall pictured for the tunnel boring machine exit. A different machine will be used to penetrate the wall.
The prepared areas of soil are massive 60-foot deep trenches around 40-feet long depending on which side of I-5 you’re talking about. The trenches, however, are not empty voids. The contractors have filled them with a soil and cement(?) mix designed for easy boring when the TBM arrives.
Thanks for the question. I too was hoping for more of a subterranean adventure and should have shared some of the descriptions given to satiate my curiosity about what we weren’t seeing.
I’d give my left arm to get this whole thing done before 2016. Don’t get me wrong, I’m as excited as could be, I’m just impatient.
I’m both happy and sad the exit is reopening. Yes it’s convenient but the area just around E. Olive and Bellevue had finally become enjoyable for pedestrians. Sadly it’ll probably regress back into a loud and dangerous thoroughfare for anxious and irritated motorists.
I feel there should be significant signage and flashing amber pedestrian crossing lights (if not stop signs) at the top of the ramp. I want the ramp open, but I’m also a pedestrian who crosses there, and many cars are very careless/thoughtless when crossing that crosswalk.
http://web.mac.com/douglasm/2010/February/Pages/University_L
These were the best views of the holes I could find to take a picture. I don’t think it would look like much more than a concrete room if you were to look from inside.
-Doug
I’ll have to get used to the cars coming off the exit again. I cross it on foot every morning.
High five!
I almost got nailed by car there this morning…I didn’t think it was supposed to open until the end of the month. Flashing ped-crossing lights should be installed to slow motorists. Well, it was great while it lasted…