SEATTLE — Two left lanes of southbound Interstate 5 in Seattle were closed for nearly four hours while crews made expansion joint repairs that were postponed last month.
The lanes were blocked south of the West Seattle Bridge and Columbian Way Thursday. The lanes were closed around 7:40 a.m. and reopened shortly after 11 a.m.
Crews removed fatigued expansion joint steel over concerns it could come loose and cause road hazards, such as damaging cars’ tires.
Initially, WSDOT had planned to do the work on June 29, but postponed it because of issues on the highways, including a fatal crash on I-5 near JBLM after an armed robbery suspect hit a semi-truck, and a two-car collision that blocked all lanes of I-5 further north near Marysville.
Essentially, expansion joints hold concrete slabs together, allowing them to expand and contract according to the weather and weight of vehicles.
On June 27, WSDOT did emergency work for the same thing in the two right lanes that caused traffic to back up for miles.
The work dragged on for four hours, causing backups all the way to the Ship Canal Bridge.
Last year, ten cars hit an expansion joint that popped up in the southbound lanes of I-5 at the Spokane Street Bridge in South Seattle.