Road construction on hold through July 4 weekend
Drivers should be ready for delays along Interstate 90 beginning July 14, when construction crews start repaving Interstate 90 in the Moses Lake area.
CHERYL SCHWEIZER/COLUMBIA BASIN HERALD
VANTAGE — People wanting to take to the open road for the July 4 weekend will find it pretty open, with most construction projects on hold until next week. The exception is the eastbound lanes of Interstate 90 over the Snoqualmie summit.
“We have a project on eastbound I-90 between North Bend and the summit, which is reduced from three lanes to two lanes,” wrote Summer Derrey, Washington Department of Transportation assistant communications manager for the south central region, in response to a question from the Columbia Basin Herald.
The lane reductions are in place 24/7, including the July 4 weekend, Derrey said. Traffic is being diverted into the off-ramps and on-ramps as part of the traffic revision. Crews are replacing a bridge deck, and the work will be ongoing through September.
The reduction in the number of lanes has been causing traffic delays throughout June, especially on busy weekends.
The Vantage Bridge, however, is back to two lanes in each direction from today through July 8. Change is coming once the holiday weekend is over.
Starting Wednesday, one lane will be open in each direction 24/7 through Aug. 28, including weekends – and yes, Gorge Amphitheater concert weekends. Both lanes will be open during the Labor Day holiday. The bridge will go back to one lane in each direction 24/7 from Sept. 1 through the end of the construction season in late October.
Given that only one lane is open in each direction throughout the summer, WSDOT officials are asking drivers to consider taking alternate routes. The DOT has highlighted three main options.
One route uses US 2 over Stevens Pass to Leavenworth and Wenatchee. The second uses State Route 970 from Cle Elum to US 97 over Blewett Pass to Wenatchee. In both cases, drivers use SR 28 and SR 281 through Quincy to get back to I-90. The third goes from Ellensburg to Yakima, Interstate 82 to Pasco, then US 395 to Ritzville.
Paving along I-90 will begin July 14 on two sections near Moses Lake. Crews will work from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday until the Labor Day weekend, according to a WSDOT press release. After Labor Day, crews will be working Monday through Friday through late October.
Road crews will be working from Dodson Road to Road O NE, but the project is broken into two parts. Only the eastbound lanes will be paved between the Dodson Road and Mae Valley exits. Both eastbound and westbound lanes get paved between Mae Valley and Road O NE.
Drivers should be ready for single-lane closures in the project area, along with temporary ramp closures. Speed will be reduced during working hours.
Construction crews will be shaving down the top layers of the existing pavement and repaving, along with fixing cracks, adding signage and lane markings.
Originally, the paving included the section of I-90 between George and the Vantage Bridge, but that work will begin in spring 2026. The freeway will be paved in both directions in that section.