Bring coffee but don’t drink too much of it. Drivers this weekend will be sitting a while in delays where Interstate 5 meets Interstate 90.
Road closures will cause delays for drivers trying to use Interstate 90, Highway 520 and Highway 522 this weekend.
Another three-lane closure of eastbound I-90 near the Sodo junction tops the list of delays and annoyances.
Diverting to the Highway 520 toll bridge won’t necessarily help, because a Montlake Bridge deck repair might create spillover congestion for both directions of 520 near the University of Washington.
And another project in Bothell will make it harder for northbound Interstate 405 drivers to reach Highway 522.
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State schedulers are putting out the green light for roadwork, and red brake lights for travelers, because the Huskies and Seahawks aren’t playing at home. But the Sounders FC play at home Sunday.
Here’s the breakdown:
• Drivers leaving downtown Seattle from I-5 to I-90 will be funneled into the express lanes at Rainier Avenue South, from 11 p.m. Friday until 5 a.m. Monday, for ongoing retrofits of the Mount Baker tunnels and Mercer Island lids. Major delays can be expected.
Crews are changing the lights, fire-suppression equipment, electrical systems and road layouts until June 2017, so high-occupancy lanes can eventually be moved from the express lanes into mainline I-90.
The entire $283 million HOV project is to make way for Sound Transit to build light rail in the I-90 express lanes across Lake Washington.
Similar weekend closures have caused backups affecting northbound I-5 toward downtown. They can also cause southbound I-5 delays in the “collector-distributor lanes” that lead from downtown to eastbound I-90 and Edgar Martinez Drive South.
• In Bothell, northbound I-405 exits will close to eastbound and westbound Highway 522, from 10 p.m. Friday until noon Sunday. Some 43,000 drivers will be affected, said Steve Peer, a spokesman for the Washington State Department of Transportation.
Drivers seeking to use Highway 522 toward Monroe, Woodinville or Kenmore can continue on I-405 to the Northeast 195th Street exit, cross the overpass and backtrack using southbound I-405, to reach the 522 interchange.
Onramps from Northeast 160th Street to I-405 also will close — but cars can still exit from the freeway to reach 160th.
Workers will install a huge stormwater-drainage vault, to keep polluted highway runoff from flowing into the Sammamish River, WSDOT says.
• The Montlake Bridge will close so workers can replace the steel bridge deck, from 5 a.m. Saturday until 5 p.m. Sunday. This also will close one lane of the eastbound Highway 520 exit ramp to Montlake Boulevard. Bicycles and pedestrians can still cross the bridge using the west walkway.
• Two interior lanes of four-lane Fauntleroy Way Southwest, where the hillside road leads to the West Seattle Bridge, will close for repair from 7 p.m. Friday until Sunday night. The right lane will remain open in each direction. Drivers should approach the curve far below the 40 mph speed limit. Workers are replacing concrete, following an emergency sewer repair.
• The intersection of 23rd Avenue and Cherry Street will be closed for drainage construction in Seattle, next to Garfield High School.
• Bicycle commuters using the Burke-Gilman Trail will face a two-week detour beginning Monday in Lake Forest Park, where 40 dying poplar trees were damaged in the August windstorm, and will be replaced.
One positive note: Sound Transit will operate game-day Sounder commuter trains to and from the Sounders FC soccer match. Kickoff is at 4 p.m. Sunday, against Real Salt Lake. See www.soundtransit.org for schedules. Link light-rail, arriving from downtown or SeaTac, runs every 10 minutes. Trains ought to help south-end fans avoid the Sodo freeway mess, but they won’t serve the Eastside until 2023.