Kids & Family

520 Bridge Weekend Closure Slated for June 1-4

Crews installed 42 girders over the most recent weekend closure, reports the Washington State Department of Transportation. The next weekend closure slated for June 1-4.

On the heels of — which ended Monday morning — is an alert for the next one: the weekend of June 1-4, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation.

The weekend closures are for extensive construction on State Route 520 between Medina and Bellevue, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation. The Medina to Bellevue project is slated to be done by December 2013.

Officials told Patch earlier this year that motorists can expect at least one weekend closure a month for the rest of the year.

Find out what's happening in Mercer Islandwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Over this past weekend, crews installed 42 batch of girders is in place over State Route 520, according to a state press release.

The 42 girders are part of a future lidded overpass at 84th Avenue Northeast, according to the WSDOT.

Find out what's happening in Mercer Islandwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Crews also installed more than 1,000 feet of drainage pipes beneath the highway, the WSDOT said in a press release. Crews built a construction access bridge on the bridge’s east highrise so workers can better reach the floating bridge work zone, WSDOT reported.

Motorists will also see a new change: starting today, buses will merge with general traffic just west of 92nd Avenue Northeast, which will create a longer merge from the 84th Avenue Northeast on-ramp and improves visibility for westbound traffic, according to the state DOT.

An estimated 150 workers were on-hand to complete construction throughout the 2.5-mile-long project corridor from Medina to Bellevue, the state DOT reported.

This closure is related to the  from Medina to Bellevue. The project will:

  • Widen SR 520 and create carpool lanes in both directions.
  • Widen the shoulders, so disabled vehicles will not block the lanes of traffic.
  • Create three landscaped lids over SR 520, two with access to new transit stops.
  • Add a bike and pedestrian lane to SR 520.
  • Create environmental improvements, including improvements to streams and noise barriers.

More information on the Eastside Transit and HOV Project can be found on the WSDOT website.

Construction . The new six-lane SR 520 floating bridge is under construction just north of the existing floating bridge. The target date for opening the bridge to traffic is the end of 2014. The new bridge is a $586.6 million construction contract  to Kiewit/General/Manson. More information is online at www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/SR520Bridge/BridgeAndLandings/Default.

For more coverage about State Route 520 project on Bellevue Patch, click here.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from Mercer Island