Work, traffic moving on I-90 project

As of Sunday morning, contractor crews had replaced half of two of the huge expansion joints on I-90 at the East Channel Bridge. Traffic time from Bellevue was 12 minutes as of 6:15 a.m. Monday.

July 21, 2014 9:24 am
Contractor crews replace half of two of the huge expansion joints on I-90 at the East Channel Bridge as of Sunday morning.
Contractor crews replace half of two of the huge expansion joints on I-90 at the East Channel Bridge as of Sunday morning.

As of Sunday morning, contractor crews had replaced half of two of the huge expansion joints on I-90 at the East Channel Bridge and were putting down concrete over the new joints. Still to come are the removal of the other half of the old joints, installation of new joints, a 30-hour welding job, and more concrete pouring.

The concrete needs about 12 hours to cure and  reach a strength of 2,500 psi (pounds per square inch) for traffic to go over it.

Whenever that happens, the state will switch the work zone to the other side of the highway to work on the other half of the joints. That is scheduled to happen around 9 p.m. Monday morning drivers will see traffic moving through the work zone in the Phase 2 configuration.

From a traffic standpoint, WSDOT says it saw significant slowdowns on westbound I-90 Saturday and traffic continued to flow freely on Sunday for people headed into Seattle for the Bite of Seattle or other events. Travel times from Issaquah to Bellevue were about 11 minutes, and about 16 minutes to Seattle.

On Monday as of 6:15, traffic time from Bellevue to Seattle was 12 minutes on either I-90 or SR 520.