To complete these roadway changes, contractor crews working for the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) will close the off-ramp this weekend. In addition, all westbound lanes of SR 520 will close overnight on Sunday, Aug. 9.
The SR 520 westbound off-ramp to Montlake Boulevard will close from 11 p.m. Friday, Aug. 7, to 5 a.m. Monday, Aug. 10.
Between 11 p.m. Friday and 11 p.m. Sunday, westbound traffic on SR 520 will reach Montlake Boulevard via the off-ramp to Lake Washington Boulevard.
At 11 p.m. Sunday, all westbound lanes and ramps of SR 520 will close between 92nd Avenue Northeast and Montlake Boulevard.
By 5 a.m. Monday, all westbound ramps and lanes of the highway will reopen, including the newly realigned, two-lane westbound off-ramp to Montlake Boulevard.
Currently, westbound vehicles merge from SR 520’s single-lane off-ramp onto northbound Montlake Boulevard without stopping. On Monday, the realigned off-ramp — with two lanes instead of one — will tie into Montlake Boulevard at a newly configured T-intersection. Both off-ramp lanes will be right-turn only, and drivers will need to wait for a green light from the intersection’s new traffic signal before turning north onto Montlake Boulevard.
When sidewalk construction is completed later this month, walkers and bicyclists will have a signalized crosswalk and no longer will confront vehicles making free right turns onto Montlake Boulevard’s northbound lanes.
Later, when a new off-ramp to 24th Avenue East is constructed, WSDOT will build a wider bicycle and pedestrian path along that street’s north-south route between Capitol Hill and the University of Washington.
The new off-ramps and intersection improvements are part of WSDOT’s West Approach Bridge North project. This fixed-column bridge, scheduled to open in 2017, will cross Union Bay and connect the new SR 520 floating bridge to the Montlake area.