Date:
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Contact:
Dustin Terpening, Communications, 360-757-5997 (Burlington)
Chris Damitio, Project Engineer, 360-788-7403 (Bellingham)
BELLINGHAM –Drivers who typically use the Sunset Drive on-ramp to southbound I-5 in Bellingham should plan alternate routes this weekend. Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) crews will close the ramp around the clock to improve and extend its connection with I-5. The closure was originally scheduled for last weekend, but rainy weather forced crews to reschedule.
The ramp will be closed from 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 15, to 7 a.m. Monday, Oct. 18. Drivers will be detoured to the Ohio Street on-ramp during the closure.
“We have to close the ramp all weekend because we’re going to rip out part of the roadway, extend the ramp and pave,” project engineer Chris Damitio said. “The extended closure allows us to get in, get the work done and get out of the way of drivers more quickly.”
Crews will also close the right lane of southbound I-5 nightly between Guide Meridian and Sunset Drive during the weekend-long ramp closure. The right lane will close from 8 p.m. Friday to 8 a.m. Saturday, 7 p.m. Saturday to 9 a.m. Sunday, and 7 p.m. Sunday to 7 a.m. Monday.
WSDOT will extend the on-ramp by 300 feet and add 8-foot shoulders to make it easier and safer for drivers to merge onto I-5 and to ease congestion through the city.
“It’s a tight squeeze getting onto I-5 at the Sunset ramp right now,” Damitio said. “When we’re done, the change will be noticeable and drivers will find it easier to merge.”
The Sunset Drive on-ramp is the first of four I-5 on-ramps in Bellingham scheduled for improvements. Next year, crews will improve the northbound Samish Way on-ramp, northbound Iowa Street on-ramp and the southbound Lakeway Drive on-ramp as part of a $4.4 million project funded by the 2005 Transportation Partnership Account gas tax passed by the Legislature.
Find more information on our project website http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/I5/BellinghamOnOffRamps/.
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