WB I-90 now re-open; many furious over construction planning

Work is finished on WB I-90 and cars are moving on the mainline again, but if you’re going to head this way, please be careful. While lanes are open, our crews still are picking up the barrels from WB I-90 and ramps to the freeway until about 5 p.m. pic.twitter.com/Bzq4txpP7P

— WSDOT Traffic (@wsdot_traffic) September 25, 2022

Update (Sunday, September 25 at 5:03 p.m.): All lanes of Westbound I-90 are now open after WSDOT crews finished construction ahead of schedule.

Original Story:

Mercer Island, WA. – Traffic has been a nightmare for many in western Washington over the past 48 hours, especially those who attempted to go westbound on Interstate 90.

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Steve Sogge says his commute from I-405 to the I-90 ramp to Mercer Island took hours upon hours.

“And boom it just … comes to a stop,” Sogge said.

“Because I remember thinking, I better see what time this is and how long this takes and that was right at 2. And I didn’t get home until 8:40,” Sogge said.

He says he was frustrated by the lack of planning, as well as the lack of officers monitoring the roads during the gridlock. He says if people on Mercer Island have an emergency, it would be a hard time for them.

“Otherwise, we’re stuck. And there’s going to be emergencies for people where they got to do certain things that are not quite calling 911 and taking someone off in an aid car,” Sogge said.

“To send that message to people that essentially, I-90 to Seattle is closed,” WSDOT spokesperson Amy Moreno said.

Moreno says the organization understands the frustration drivers faced yesterday as it wants to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

“We will meet with the city of Mercer Island and their emergency responders and state patrol and what we can learn from this and go forward from there,” Moreno.

But many people like Sogge believe the whole thing could have been avoided if the construction was planned better.

“Even the next two days, it’s like stringing things together. They need to come up with a better contingency plan and preparedness the next time they do it,” Sogge said.

With the changes, construction on fixing the expansion joint will wrap up early Monday morning.

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