Medina SR 520 Lid Could Be Partially Open to Traffic in February

Construction on girders over State Route 520 at Evergreen Point Road has set the stage to shift local traffic onto the east half of the new lid in Medina next month, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation.

Construction crews worked the weekend installing massive concrete girders and supports for future lidded overpasses on the Eastside, the state transportation agency reported in a press release.

“It was a snowy, cold and busy weekend for construction crews, and we made great progress toward completing the new lid at Evergreen Point Road and elsewhere in the corridor,” said Brian Dobbins, Washington State Department of Transportation SR 520 Eastside construction manager in a prepared statement.

“Once traffic is shifted to the new overpass and lid, we can move on to demolish the existing Evergreen Point Road overpass and build the final supports and girders,” Dobbins said.

The lidded overpasses are part of the state's . Improvements include landscaped lids over portions of 520, a wider roadway, increased carpool lanes, a bicycle and pedestrian lane and environmental upgrades. The construction between Evergreen Point Road to east of 108th Avenue NE in Bellevue will cost $306 million.

The will incorporate a park and ride, a bus stop, and green space, at the place where there is currently a two-lane overpass.

The recently started will pay for some of the construction costs of the highway.

The Washington State Department of Transportation released the following summary of the weekend work:

SR 520 was closed from Montlake Boulevard to Interstate 405 in Bellevue starting Friday night, which gave crews the weekend to install 12 girders weighing a total of two million pounds. Cranes lifted two girders into place at Evergreen Point Road and 10 girders at 92nd Avenue Northeast. Crews also continued work on concrete supports for a new lidded overpass at 84th Avenue Northeast.

Construction crews completed work on the lids around midnight because they postponed drainage trenching work across eastbound State Route 520, according to a WSDOT press release. The snow and cold made this work difficult to predict and will be rescheduled, the press release stated.

The state plans for two weekend closures of the bridge and highway in February: Feb. 10-13 and Feb. 24-27 from Montlake Boulevard in Seattle across the floating bridge to I-405 in Bellevue. Weekend closure details are available at www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/SR520Bridge/WeekendClosures.