Remember: Major I-5 Work This Weekend South Of Seattle

TUKWILA, WA — It seems like every month WSDOT is out on I-5 fixing expansion joints, those noisy steel pieces that hold the freeway together in some places.

This week, WSDOT crews will be out making repairs to a particularly notorious section of expansion joints near I-405 in Tukwila — and that means drivers should get ready for some serious delays.

Two years ago, WSDOT replaced the joints in the northbound lanes over the Duwamish River. But they used old pieces of steel.

"As part of our design, we reused steel plates in four of the interstate's expansion joints. We thought the plates had some life left in them, but that just wasn't the case," WSDOT wrote on its blog this week. One of the joints broke in August.

The "critical emergency repair" will unfold over two upcoming weekends. Here's what that will look like:

• On Sept. 20 at 10 p.m., I-5 will be reduced to only the two right northbound lanes until 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 22.
• On Sept. 27 at 10 p.m., the opposite will happen, with all traffic traveling along the two left lanes.
• The I-405 HOV on-ramp, Southcenter Boulevard on-ramp, and Interurban Avenue on-ramp will all be closed during the weekend repairs.

The repairs are happening at a major choke-point along the highway, just north of I-405 and the main northbound on-ramp from the Southcenter Mall. The Seahawks will also be at home on Sept. 22, so WSDOT is advising drivers to take light rail, the bus, or car pool.