I knew what was coming. I warned drivers about what was coming.
As expected, southbound I-5 drivers were greeted with massive backups out of Snohomish County because of the loss of the express lanes. They are normally open southbound in the morning, handling tens of thousands of drivers each day. Those express lanes are now open in the northbound direction 24/7 until June because of construction across the Ship Canal Bridge.
The backup started at just about 6 a.m., right where drivers lose the HOV lane in Northgate. Within a half hour, the congestion from losing that lane extended to Shoreline. Within an hour, the backup started before the Edmonds exit and extended to about 85th. A seven-mile backup and a 30-40 minute delay. That’s when drivers started to bail and head to southbound I-405 out of Lynnwood.
History repeats itself on I-5
This is the same pattern we saw last summer when the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) used this same configuration for one month of construction work on the Ship Canal Bridge…