CONSTRUCTION STARTS TODAY ON HOV LANES CONNECTING SEATTLE AND MERCER ISLAND

February 27, 2015

Construction starts today on HOV lanes connecting Seattle and Mercer Island

The third and final stage of WSDOT's $220 million Interstate 90 transit and HOV project is expected to start tonight with a detour of eastbound traffic onto the express lanes.

Imco General Construction of Ferndale bid $120.1 million for the project last fall and was the lowest of four contractors.

Imco will add an HOV lane in each direction between Mercer Island and Seattle, and preserve pavement in both directions from Interstate 5 to Lake Washington. It also will build an eastbound HOV direct-access exit ramp at Island Crest Way on Mercer Island, and upgrade life safety systems in the Mount Baker and Mercer Island freeway tunnels so that Sound Transit light rail can pass through them starting in 2020.

Imco's work will be finished by June 2017. As part of the third stage, the company will prepare the center roadway for Sound Transit' 14-mile East Link light rail extension from Seattle to Redmond.

Stage 3A was awarded last year to MidMountain Contractors of Kirkland, which bested seven other firms with a bid of $7.4 million. That work is reconstructing and repositioning HOV ramps on eastbound I-90 near Bellevue Way. It should be finished mid-year.

WSDOT is administering all stages of the project funded by WSDOT, Sound Transit and the Federal Transit Administration. The first stage was finished in 2008 and the second in 2012.

WSDOT says the overall project will improve on-time reliability and access for transit and carpools on I-90. New ramps will allow buses, carpools and vanpools direct access to the freeway without merging through lanes of traffic.