Date:  Thursday, October 07, 2010

Contact: Dustin Terpening, Communications, 360-757-5997 (Burlington)
Jay Drye, Engineering Manager, 360-757-5993 (Burlington)

$4.8 million project completed ahead of schedule and on budget

BURLINGTON – Skagit County’s newest roundabout is scheduled to open early Saturday morning at the I-5/Chuckanut Drive interchange in Burlington. This is the second roundabout to open at the interchange since July. Together, these two roundabouts will help improve safety and traffic flow through the interchange.

Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) crews plan to open the newest roundabout by 5 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 9, east of I-5 at the intersection of Burlington Boulevard and Old Highway 99. Striping and lane markings currently scheduled to go down Friday night may be delayed because of rain. The work will be rescheduled for next week if it gets delayed.

The first roundabout opened July 30 at the intersection of Chuckanut Drive and Josh Wilson Road. The single-lane roundabouts, located on either side of the I-5 overpass, improve traffic flow through the interchange by realigning the adjoining city streets and I-5 on- and off-ramps into two intersections.

“One of the best things about this project is that we replaced four intersections with two roundabouts,” engineering manager Jay Drye said. “There are fewer intersections to hassle with now. Traffic is going to flow much more smoothly through the interchange, and for drivers it’ll be a night-and-day difference.”

Opening the roundabout is the last major piece of construction on this $4.8 million project. WSDOT is finishing the project ahead of schedule and on budget. Drivers will see crews completing minor items of work and cleaning up over the next several weeks.

“I have to thank the businesses, residents and drivers for their patience while we built this project,” said Drye. “We had a lot of lane closures and even closed the interchange for a time, and they were great about it. Thank you.”

WSDOT wants to remind drivers of three simple rules for driving single-lane roundabouts:

1. Always yield to drivers in the roundabout
2. Never stop in the roundabout
3. Always drive counterclockwise through the roundabout

Videos and graphics explaining how to drive roundabouts are available on the WSDOT roundabout website - www.wsdot.wa.gov/Safety/roundabouts.  

For more project details, visit the project Web site
www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/I5/SR11InterchangeJoshWilsonRoad/.  

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