Resurfacing Work on Island Crest Way Underway

Road crews are focused on pavement grinding and patching on Island Crest Way this week as the city's largest summer road project reaches a crucial phase, according to a City Hall construction update. 

Two inches of Island Crest Way pavement will be removed across its full width in preparation for a new asphalt overlay. This work is expected to take three days to complete. Crews will work on milling the southbound side first, then switch to the northbound side. Two lanes will remain open for traffic during most of this work; however short closures of a single lane may be necessary to maneuver the milling machine and dump trucks. Once the mainline of Island Crest Way is planed down, crews will switch to grinding the side street connections (i.e. Merrimount, SE 46th, SE 47th, SE 48th) and will also do some full depth pavement removals. The purpose of the pavement repair work is to remove fatigued portions of the underlying pavement and patch back with new asphalt prior to the street repaving. The milling machine is expected to be on site all week in order to complete all grinding and pavement repairs.

Residents are asked to expect driving delays and many dump trucks in the work zone this week. Also, the City asks motorists to take extra caution when driving on the grooved pavement surfaces left by the milling machine.

Residents can expect the most severe traffic delays Aug. 14-16 for the scheduled repaving of Island Crest Way (paving is scheduled for Aug. 14-15, with side street connections planned for Aug. 16). These will likely be long work days, starting at 7 a.m. and possibly going until 7 p.m. To reduce the number of days needed for paving, the contractor plans to pave the entire southbound side on the first day using two paving machines and two crews. Then the entire northbound side will be paved on the second day, again with double crews and equipment.

The City advises residents to expect to wait several minutes to get through the area and to consider using East or West Mercer Ways as alternate routes to reach the south end of the Island. 

Last week, road crews focused on completing the concrete and asphalt sidewalk areas. Wilson Concrete Construction completed all of their remaining concrete curbs, sidewalks, and ADA sidewalk ramp pours by Thursday. An asphalt crew from Lakeside Industries spent three days paving asphalt sidewalks along the west side of Island Crest Way. Additional work is needed on sidewalk areas, which is on track to be completed this week.

For more information, contact City Street Engineer Clint Morris at clint.morris@mercergov.org or 206-275-7807.

(Ed. Note: The information in this article was taken from a City of Mercer Island press release.)