SEATTLE, JAN. 28: The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) surprised everyone yesterday by postponing the planned Revive I-5 project from Northgate to Yesler to 2026. The delay also includes work on the much-needed resurfacing of the Ship Canal Bridge, which was slated to begin in March of this year.
Why the Postponement?
According to the WSDOT Blog that announced the postponement of this critical road work, the decision was primarily driven by the need to work with the contractor, Atkinson Construction, to align construction spending with funding.
This year, through June 30, the planned budget share of the project was $70 million. The contractor’s needs exceeded that planned budget by $15 million. Messay Shiferaw, WSDOT Assistant Northwest Regional Administrator said, “It’s all about WSDOT not having enough money before the end of the biennium. It has nothing to do with the contractor.”
A new plan and timeline for work to begin in 2026 has not been established yet. Any construction starting in 2026 will work around the 2026 FIFA World Cup with all lanes open from early June through mid-July.
What’s Ahead
In the meantime, there are plans to perform some work this year that could include weekend closures and possible lane restrictions on I-5 along the eight-mile stretch from Northgate to Yesler.
The WSDOT Blog highlights that the bridge’s integrity is not compromised. Yet more emergency roadwork is quite likely including the filling of potholes on the Ship Canal Bridge deck. On the bridge alone, there have been nearly 50 emergency pothole repairs from August 2022 through 2023, and close to 200 such emergency repairs since 2019.
The freeway’s age goes back to the mid-1960s. The age of this 60-year-old stretch of freeway was exposed again on Monday as the ramp from westbound I-90 to northbound I-5 was closed thanks to an expansion joint failure. The emergency repairs snarled the afternoon commute.
A New Wrinkle
Also on Monday, the White House budget office announced a pause on all federal grants and loans. Federal agencies were ordered to temporarily pause all activities related to the obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance.
Most Federal highway maintenance and projects are financed by a combination of Federal, state and local funding. Most of the Federal funding comes from grants by the Federal Highway Administration. It is unclear what this latest White Order means to highway grant funding, not only for this Revive I-5 project but also for other planned or ongoing highway maintenance and projects.
In the Meantime
For I-5 drivers, the postponement of this three-year Revive I-5 project offers a respite from traffic headaches this year. The plan was to start in March, narrowing the northbound lanes of the freeway’s Ship Canal Bridge down to two lanes for up to nine months as crews resurfaced the bridge deck. The reversible lanes would remain in the northbound direction full time.
The following year, the same work would be done on the southbound lanes, again reducing capacity to two lanes, with the reversible lanes going only in the southbound direction.
On top of the freeway resurfacing efforts, this project also included paving several ramps along the eight-mile stretch and resurfacing from the Ship Canal Bridge to Yesler in 2027, most to be completed involving closures during nights and weekends.
Now, all that planned road work over the three-year period has been postponed a year, to begin in 2026. I-5 drivers can breathe some relief for now.
Yet at some point, the rehabilitation of this 60-year-old stretch along one of the busiest parts of any freeway in the state needs to be accomplished. The WSDOT Blog points out that the long-term work to preserve the lifeline that I-5 has become for the region needs to be done.
