Traffic headed off Northern Capitol Hill will be a bit of a mess this weekend as construction will close the 10th Ave E overpass above 520.
WSDOT says the closure will run from 7 AM to 10 PM on Saturday and Sunday.
“Use signed detours, allow extra time and drive carefully this weekend,” WSDOT suggests and adds you can call their 24-hr hotline at (425) 319-4520 for updates.
The work is part of what will be years of construction to build the new 520 Portage Bay Bridge and Roanoke Lid. Work on the entirety of the $1.4 billion project is hoped to be wrapped up by 2031.
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As someone who lives in Portage Bay, it’s unbelievable that SDOT / WADOT are doing this on weekends with major local events – last weekend Greek festival, this weekend UW match. They have also failed to stop huge traffic jams on local streets as drivers go round in circles trying to figure out how to get to I5.
I spoke with a knowledgeable local resident of that immediate area, and he told me that the project involves temporarily removing both the 10th Ave E overpass and the Delmar Drive overpass, in order to make way for adding new lanes of 520 on both sides (with extensive tree removal, already started). A single, temporary bridge will be built to accommodate 10th Ave E and Delmar Dr traffic during construction, and this will mean a “zig-zag” route for north-south traffic to reach E Roanoke St and to access I5 on Harvard. Needless to say, this will be a real mess….for years! And I’m guessing it will mean suspension of the bus route through that area (? #49) as buses would have a difficult time negotiating the temporary route.
Apparently, WSDOT thinks it’s necessary to widen and add 520 lanes in the area, but I question why. The “Roanoke Lid” is planned as mitigation, but will that really do much to decrease noise for the few local residents? There will be a park as part of the lid, but there is already a perfectly nice park (Roanoke Park) just across the street to the north.
I don’t question the need to replace the Portage Bay Bridge (because of seismic concerns), but the rest of this project is un-necessary and will mean 7 years (!) of disruption, noise, and environmental impacts.
I don’t think anyone in Portage By wants the lid chaos. They have kept the removal of 10th and Del Mar very quiet since I don’t think they actually have a plan. All the work has to be done at night, and with almost zero space for construction. No one lives near enough to the lid for it to make any difference.
Unfortunately, this is what living in a car-centric society gets us.