One lane of vehicular traffic to open in each direction across bridge
BELLEVUE – After a five-month-long closure, the Main Street overpass across Interstate 405 in downtown Bellevue will partially reopen to one lane of vehicular traffic in each direction on Sunday, Nov. 20.
In June, contractor crews working for WSDOT closed and demolished the old Main Street bridge over the course of a weekend. Once complete, they immediately began to rebuild a new overpass that will accommodate new highway lanes as part of the I-405/Renton to Bellevue Widening and Express Toll Lanes Project.
Pedestrians and cyclists will not have access to the partially reopened bridge as crews construct a 12-and-a-half-foot-wide multi-use path, 8-foot-wide sidewalk, bike lane, landscaped barrier, and railings. The new and improved overpass is scheduled to fully reopen to all modes of travel in mid-January.
“After last winter’s concrete strike and a wet spring earlier this year, we are excited to be moving forward with this significant multimodal improvement as part of the Renton to Bellevue project,” I-405/SR 167 Program Administrator Lisa Hodgson said. “Thanks to recent dry weather, our project team’s hard work, and strong communication and partnership with the city of Bellevue, we are able to reopen the bridge on schedule and ahead of anticipated traffic increases during the holidays.”
The Main Street overpass replacement is just one of many key features of the widening project. The project, which has been under contract since 2019, is building one new lane in each direction to create a dual express toll lane system between State Route 167 in Renton and Northeast Sixth Street in Bellevue.