The WSDOT Blog

Our goals are:

• Improve safe travel for all, especially pedestrians and cyclists at the ends of the ramps.
• Increase community connectivity and access to the Judkins Park Link light rail station for those who ride transit, walk, bike and roll.

Map of the Judkins Park area with the I-90 ramps endpoints shown as orange dots.

To learn more, check out the webpage: I-90 Judkins Park Station – Reconnecting Communities | WSDOT

Our study follows a clear seven step process to find the best solutions for reconnecting the community. Check out our September 2025 blog post to learn more about the process.

Using a filter to find the best ideas

Just like a screen at the beach, we use a filter to sort through different ideas for the I-90 ramps. As we screen the improvement ideas, those that will not work fall through. Good ideas stay on top. We keep the designs (also called concepts or alternatives) that best match what the community wants and needs.

We use two rounds of screening, Level 1 and Level 2, to pick the best design. We call this the "preferred alternative." Each round assesses how well each design meets the needs of the community. We use specific criteria to compare ideas and find the best one.

Criteria

The criteria are based on the study goals.

In this study, there were six criteria for the Level 1 screening.

For Level 2 screening, community members and agency representatives, collectively called the Advisory Group, worked with our team to add a seventh criterion. These seven criteria help us compare the four alternatives for the I-90 ramps at Rainier Avenue South. The Advisory Group also helped develop different weighting schemes to reflect community priorities.

Learn more about these community members and agency representatives, called the Advisory Group, and their meetings on our webpage: I-90 Judkins Park Station – Reconnecting Communities | WSDOT.

Curious about what needs each criterion addresses and how we measure it?

Here's a breakdown:

• Improve active transportation access: To make it easier for drivers and those who walk, bike, roll and access transit to see and predict the movement of each other. This is measured based on how visible and predictable pedestrian and bike crossings are for drivers.

• Reduce exposure: To minimize (or eliminate) the time and space in which those who walk, bike, roll and access transit must interact with vehicles. This is measured based on physical and time separation between vehicles and pedestrians or bikes.

• Reduce vehicle operating speeds: To slow down motor vehicle speeds to enhance safety for people who bike, walk, roll and access transit. This is measured based on expected reduction in vehicle speeds.

• Optimize spacing of Rainer Avenue South crossings: To add more opportunities to cross Rainier Avenue South, with protected marked crossings in locations that support pedestrian and bicycle travel needs. This is measured based on how well crossings match pedestrian and/or cyclist travel patterns.

• Enhance parks, green space and frontage: To minimize impacts and make it easier to reach parks and green spaces from sidewalks and bike paths on Rainier Avenue South. This is measured based on potential to increase or decrease park, green space and/or frontage.

• Minimize off-ramp queue length: To ensure improvements to the ramps do not create hazards on I-90. This is measured based on the level of impact to I-90 caused by ramp traffic backing up.

• Minimize transit speed and reliability impacts: To ensure better bus service and travel times on Rainier Avenue South so that riding transit is convenient and reliable. This is measured based on the level of travel time impacts on transit routes.

How the community has weighed what matters most

Not all rules are equally important. Some matter more than others. For example: Is safety more important than traffic flow? Should we focus more on pedestrians and people who bike or on keeping buses on time? The Advisory Group worked through these tough questions together and prioritized what matters most to them.

We asked Advisory Group Members to give each criteria a "weight," by assigning points based on what matters most to them. Think of it like grading in school—if a test is worth more points than homework, it counts more toward your final grade.

The group did not all agree on everything, and that is okay! Their input created two different weighting schemes by combining similar responses. Our project team, including engineers, planners and environmental experts, also weighted the criteria, independently.

This created three weighting schemes described and illustrated in the table below. The three columns show the different weighting systems that will be used to evaluate the alternatives.

* Indicates criteria schemes that were decided by the Advisory Group.

Why we are using three different criteria weighting schemes

Finding the best alternative is not just about how well each performs. It is also about which criteria matter most. We use different criteria schemes to respect different community values: two reflect the input from Advisory Group members, and one reflects the judgments of the Project Team’s subject matter expertise based on experience on similar transportation projects. By testing all four alternatives against all three criteria schemes, we get a complete picture of how well each alternative serves the neighborhood under different value frameworks.

The engineers are evaluating the four alternatives using the three criteria schemes. We are in the final screening phase, shaking the screen to see which alternatives rise to the top. We will share the draft results in early 2026.

What is happening now

Colorful beach stones and pebbles of varying sizes.

The engineers are evaluating the four alternatives using the three criteria schemes. We are in the final screening phase, shaking the screen to see which alternatives rise to the top. We will share the draft results in early 2026.

Learn more about all four alternatives on our December blog post: Judkins Park and I-90 – choosing the best alternative for the ramps. 

After a preferred alternative is chosen

Right now, we have money to study alternatives, pick the best one and complete early design. After we choose, we will know how much it costs to complete the design and build it. We will need to seek funding to finish the design and pay for construction. This means we do not know yet when construction will start. We will continue to keep the community updated.

Learn more and stay informed

We are committed to transparency throughout this process. Your voice matters in this project. Thanks for helping to make this community driven.

Study webpage

• Visit the project page for the latest updates, detailed information and recordings/presentations from our Advisory Group meetings.
• Email updates: Sign up for Seattle area news and study updates.

Contact Info

Amber Stanley - Community Engagement Lead

Phone: 206-817-8833

Email: amber.stanley@wsdot.wa.gov

If you’ve been traveling through Seattle this week, you’ve likely felt the impacts of Revive I-5 in real time. Lane reductions, slower speeds and longer travel times in and around the Ship Canal Bridge have changed daily routines for thousands of people. We know this hasn’t been easy.

The impacts are real. The delays have been long. Commutes have changed. That disruption is felt differently by every driver, and we don’t take that lightly. At the same time, we know from doing this work before that traffic patterns evolve. As people adjust routes, schedules, and expectations, the system does find a new rhythm even if it takes time.

We want to share some updates on what crews worked on, what the early traffic data is showing and what’s coming up next so people can plan with the best information available.

What happened over the full closure weekend

Over the weekend of Jan. 10–11, WSDOT’s contractor, Atkinson Construction, completed the work needed to set up the long-term work zone for the Revive I-5: Ship Canal Bridge Preservation project. This required a full closure of all northbound I-5 lanes across the bridge.

Crews place barrier that will create a safe workzone during the construction on Revive I-5.

During that weekend, traffic patterns shifted across the entire region:

• Saturday traffic volumes were higher than a typical weekend, while Sunday volumes were lower, reflecting normal weekend travel behavior.
• Alternate routes including SR 99, I-405, SR 520, and I-90 all saw increased use as drivers adjusted.
• During the full closure weekend, the northbound express lanes were utilized and carried a share of northbound traffic while the mainline lanes were closed.
• A Sunday afternoon collision in the northbound express lanes briefly reduced volumes, underscoring how sensitive the system can be when capacity is constrained.

What crews accomplished behind the scenes

While drivers were adjusting to closures and detours, crews were laying the groundwork for long-term preservation work.

Over the weekend, crews:

• Pinned traffic barriers to lock in the long-term work zone
• Paved a new through lane and restriped traffic across the bridge

Lane diagram of traffic shift at NE 45th/50th Street off-ramp

Since traffic reopened with lane reductions, crews have continued critical preparatory work, including:

• Installing debris shields to protect vehicles traveling near active work
• Sealing expansion joints to prevent water intrusion ahead of hydro-demolition
• Chipping the bridge deck to assess underlying concrete conditions
• Moving specialized equipment into place for upcoming phases

This early work may not always be visible, but it’s essential to preserving the bridge deck and extending the life of a structure that carries hundreds of thousands of trips every day.

What we’re seeing now that weekday travel has returned

As weekday commuting resumed on Monday, what we have seen in these first few days are traffic patterns resembling what we saw during summer 2025, the first time this corridor experienced sustained Revive I-5 lane reductions.

So far, we’re seeing:

• Earlier commute start times
• Morning backups on southbound I-5, sometimes stretching north toward the King/Snohomish County line
• Increased use of SR 99 and I-405 as alternate north–south routes
• Continued pressure on SR 520 and I-90 as part of the regional adjustment

These changes are expected. During summer 2025, it took several weeks for traffic patterns to settle as people adjusted routes, schedules, and travel choices. What we’re seeing now follows that same pattern.

It’s also important to note that some alternate routes include tolls, and WSDOT continues to collect tolls on toll roads where tolling is in place.

Why the express lanes operate northbound only

One of the most common questions we’re hearing is why are the I-5 express lanes operating northbound 24 hours a day during this phase of Revive I-5?

During construction, several factors guide how the express lanes operate, including safety, traffic flow, and overall system reliability. With northbound I-5 reduced from five lanes to two across the Ship Canal Bridge, even a single collision or disabled vehicle can significantly disrupt traffic. Keeping the express lanes operating northbound helps reduce the risk of a full northbound shutdown and gives traffic operators greater flexibility to respond to incidents as they occur.

We understand how frustrating this is for people traveling southbound especially when you’re sitting in traffic and see express lanes that may appear lightly used at a given moment. That frustration is real. While the lanes may not always look full, they are being managed as a system-balancing tool, available to absorb surges, incidents, or breakdowns in the northbound lanes as conditions change throughout the day. Their value isn’t measured only by how full they look at one point in time, but by the reliability they provide to the entire corridor over the course of the day.

As weekday travel has returned, the express lanes have continued to play a key role in absorbing peak-period demand and providing flexibility when conditions change throughout the day. They are being managed as part of a regional transportation system, helping balance traffic across I-5, I-405, SR 99, and east-west routes.

View from WSDOT’s traffic camera at NE 45th Street on Wednesday, Jan. 14

It’s also important to note that this express lane operation is tied to specific construction phases and is not a permanent change. Express lane operations are aligned with where capacity has been reduced. When construction shifts to the southbound lanes in 2027, the express lanes are expected to operate southbound for the same reason; to help return capacity where it has been reduced due to construction.

Changing the direction of the express lanes is not as simple as flipping a switch. Each change requires closing the lanes, clearing vehicles, resetting gates and signs, and completing safety checks before reopening in the opposite direction. If an issue is identified during that process, the changeover can be delayed, which can add congestion and create additional challenges.

Traffic patterns also differ by direction. Southbound congestion often builds quickly but typically recovers. Northbound congestion tends to build more gradually, but once it forms, it can persist longer and affect more travelers over the course of the day. Operating the express lanes northbound during this phase helps limit those longer-lasting impacts and maintain balance across the corridor.

Staying informed

We encourage everyone to:

• Check the WSDOT mobile app or Travel Center Map for real-time conditions
• Explore options through Flip Your Trip, Sound Transit, and King County Metro

We’ll continue to monitor traffic daily and share updates weekly as this work continues. Thank you for adjusting, planning ahead and helping keep everyone moving safely while this critical preservation work gets done.

We allocated $7 million in preservation funding from the 2025-27 biennium Transportation Budget to move these two alternatives from the planning study into design and environmental review.

A couple things are occurring to get things rolling. We need geotechnical (soil and rock) information about the area. To access this location, we have to obtain right-of-way permits from landowners. We also must obtain environmental clearances before the work occurs. The Carbon River Canyon is heavily forested, and the hillsides are steep. It's not easy or cheap to place a drill rig in this area to take coring samples to see if the ground is strong enough to place a bridge foundation. That's the kind of data our survey crews need to gather to help determine the type, size and location of a new bridge.

It takes six to twelve months to collect this information. This timeline is dependent on securing environmental permits to remove some trees in this scenic canyon area for drilling. Our environmental team has identified the location as habitat for Spotted Owl and Marbled Murrelet. There are only certain times of the year we can remove trees to avoid nesting for both species. This early engineering work is used to start environmental review for the project.

View looking north of the existing Carbon River/Fairfax Bridge, in an area where a new bridge potentially could be built.

The option of keeping SR 165 closed is also being evaluated. By keeping SR 165 closed, we may need to compensate the lost access for those who currently have access to SR 165 south of the bridge, if reasonable alternative access is not otherwise provided.

NEPA, known as the National Environmental Policy Act, is a federal process that will look at the environmental impacts of each alternative. It focuses on the effects on the land, water, air, wildlife, habitat loss and human health. We are responsible for collecting and analyzing environmental impacts. Then we hand off the findings to other agencies for further review and comment.

The other agencies involved include Federal Highway Administration, US Fish and Wildlife, National Marine Fisheries Service, Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, Tribes and others. Each reviewer is given time to review and comment on WSDOT's work, ranging from 30 to135 days or more. Altogether, WSDOT is planning for a 24-month NEPA evaluation and review timeline.

The environmental review addresses something known as Section 106, the National Historic Preservation Act. The law established a national policy for the protection of important historic buildings and archeological sites and the responsibilities for federal and state governments to preserve our nation's heritage. The SR 165 Carbon River/Fairfax Bridge is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The public will have opportunities to provide input during environmental review.

The planning study outlined a preliminary six-year timeline to get a new bridge built. As we do more engineering, this timeframe will likely be revised.

We've read a resolution recently passed by the Town of Wilkeson asking WSDOT not to remove the bridge. The bridge will not be removed without environmental review and until the NEPA process is complete.

SR 165 Bypass route

Following the bridge closure, we took immediate steps to ensure people living south of the bridge had a way to get to and from town. This meant issuing keys to a privately owned bypass route. This nine-mile route is not open to the general public. It's a winding, narrow, gated gravel logging road that we don't own. The route is owned by five private property owners, as are the gates at either end of the route. We negotiated emergency permits and rights of entry with each property owner so people living south of the bridge had a way to get to and from their homes across the Carbon River. This route was established in late summer 2024 when the bridge was severely weight restricted. We appreciate the willingness of the bypass route's five property owners to work with us on this issue.

We recently signed an agreement with the Department of Commerce to help cover funding for automatic gates on the bypass route. The gate hardware is being ordered and will be installed in the coming months. We also recently initiated a new lock and key system to the gates on the bypass route to address security issues.

Our crews maintained this bypass route last winter and will continue to do so in 2026. The bypass will be maintained at the same level as SR 165 was prior to the bridge closure. Our state-wide priority plow route maps are available on our website.

We've heard from people who want to open the bypass road, but that's not possible. The route is privately owned. Under the terms of the agreement we have with the owners, we can't open it to the public.

The bypass route is owned by five property owners. The route is gated and cannot be opened to the general public.

How did we get to this point?

We are frequently asked why the bridge didn't get painted. The short answer is funding. The Carbon River Bridge is competing for available preservation funding with many other aging bridges across the state. We receive funding through the state's Transportation Budget every two years by the state Legislature. We are given limited funding for preserving infrastructure like bridges, and our repair and replacement needs far exceed the funding levels provided through the Transportation Budget. This work has been underfunded for decades, and we can't overspend our budget.

WSDOT maintains 3,481 bridges in its current inventory. 342 WSDOT-owned bridges are 80 years old or older, which exceeds WSDOT's expected service life of a bridge. Bridges are designed for a 75-year life. Many of them desperately need preservation work.

You don't have to look far to see another example of this. SR 162 Spiketon Creek Bridge just a few miles away was closed in 2018 then reopened in 2019 with a temporary bridge structure. The bridge was 82 years old when it closed in 2018. The Spiketon Creek Bridge is one of 33 in the state that currently needs replacement. Over the next 10 years, that number will jump to 80 bridges that need replacement.

We will continue to work with lawmakers, state leaders and partners to share these needs and seek solutions.

The loss of this bridge has affected local property owners, outdoor enthusiasts and local communities alike. We regularly hear from people who miss escaping to the Mowich area of Mount Rainier National Park. It has created challenges for our own crews maintaining a section of SR 165 south of the bridge. We are committed to keeping people updated on next steps and any opportunities for feedback on the two options being advanced.

A view of the 104-year-old Carbon River/Fairfax Bridge closed to all travelers. The bridge opened to traffic on Dec. 17, 1921, and was originally named the Fairfax (O’Farrell) Bridge. Historylink.org has more details on this bridge.