SEATTLE — Crews will start to pave over the "infamous bumps" along a portion of southbound I-5 in Seattle as Revive I-5 work continues this weekend.
The paving will occur near Spokane Street, where new expansion joints replaced old ones that were placed about three-quarters of an inch below the surface of the new road.
"We've been working on a solution ever since and now we're ready to start," a post from the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) reads.
It took a while to address the issue because, according WSDOT, funding needed to be secured and the contract had to find a subcontractor to do the work.
"This is the peak of construction season, so many contractors already have other work," the post reads. "The labor market is very tight right now, so finding people to do the work also was a challenge. But we now have a schedule to eliminate these bumps while we do expansion joint replacement."
Over about four weekends, WSDOT will replace expansion joints as well, extending lane reductions in order to repave the section of the freeway.
The work began at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and continues through 5 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 15. Crews will work on the left lanes.
Drivers should be prepared for the following:
- All traffic will use the collector/distributor
- The I-90 ramps to southbound I-5 will be closed, except for two hours after stadium events
- The express lanes also will remain northbound all weekend, because the southbound merge point is inside the work zone