I-5 Closure Update: WSDOT Advises 'No Discretionary Travel'

SEATTLE, WA - Closing I-5 for a full weekend sounds like a recipe for disaster - but it doesn't have to be.

Transportation officials are advising Puget Sound residents to prepare for the I-5 northbound closure at the West Seattle Bridge by planning ahead. That includes canceling discretionary trips and using public transportation (tip: if you have a ticket to the Mariners game, you can ride Link light rail for free).

Sound Transit will also run Sounder trains to Seattle for the Sunday Mariners game. You can catch a Sounder in Lakewood beginning at 10:10 a.m. Trains leave from King Street Station in Seattle right after the game ends.

"Drivers need to double down and study their weekend routes before a pair of closures bring congestion across the region. Not planning ahead is a gamble that could have travelers spending a lot of time in gridlock in King and Snohomish counties between the night of Friday, June 1 and early Monday, June 4," WSDOT wrote in a blog post Thursday.

One piece of good news: the planned closure of U.S. 2 east of Everett has been postponed due to weather. That means I-5 north of Seattle should be OK.

Here's what this weekend's I-5 closure in Seattle will look like:

• At 8 p.m. Friday, construction crews will begin closing I-5 lanes near I-405 in Tukwila. The lane closures will taper down to a single lane by the West Seattle Bridge/Columbian Way exit near Beacon Hill.
• All northbound I-5 lanes will be open north of the state convention center in downtown Seattle - that means drivers already downtown or in the University District, for example, will have unfettered access to the freeway
• I-5 on-ramps to northbound lanes between southbound I-405 and South Michigan Street will close at 8 p.m. Friday.
• The northbound on-ramp to I-5 from SR 518 (which connects to Sea-Tac) will remain open
• All I-5 off-ramps between I-405 and the West Seattle Bridge will remain open - those include Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Swift Avenue/Albro Place, and Michigan Street
• From downtown Seattle, drivers will be able to access the northbound I-5 express lanes on Saturday and Sunday afternoons

Image courtesy WSDOT