Date:  Friday, June 12, 2009

Contact: Contact: Greg Phipps, WSDOT Communications, 206-949-8078

SEATTLE – Drivers who use Fourth Avenue S. in Seattle’s SODO neighborhood could face closures and short delays in the next week.

At 7 p.m. nightly on Friday, June 12, and Monday, June 15, to Thursday, June 18, crews working for WSDOT contractor Kiewit Pacific Co. will close all lanes of Fourth Avenue S. between S. Royal Brougham Way and S. Atlantic Street/Edgar Martinez Drive S.. The street will reopen by 5 a.m. each following morning. A signed detour will divert drivers to Sixth Avenue S.

During the closures crews will drive 80-foot-long steel piles into the ground underneath Fourth Avenue S. The piles will provide a solid foundation for construction of a new I-90 and I-5 exit to Atlantic Street/Edgar Martinez Drive.

This construction is part of the $84.35 million SR 519 Intermodal Access Project. In the project crews are building the new off-ramp and a bridge over the railroad tracks on S. Royal Brougham Way. The project also includes the recently completed widening of the First Avenue S. and S. Atlantic Street/Edgar Martinez Drive S.

These improvements will create a safer SR 519 for drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists, and move freight, daily commuters, sports fans and ferry travelers faster through the corridor. For more information, visit www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr519. Track construction progress with our SR 519 photo collection on flickr at www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/collections/72157611230638731/.

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WSDOT keeps people, businesses and the economy moving by operating and improving the state's transportation systems. To learn more about what we're doing, go to www.wsdot.wa.gov/news for pictures, videos, news and blogs. Real time traffic information is available at www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic or by dialing 5-1-1.

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