WSDOT, SDOT outline Revive I-5 Ship Canal Bridge preservation; high‑impact closures start this weekend

State and city transportation officials on June 17, 2025, briefed the Seattle City Council Transportation Committee on Revive I‑5, a multiyear Ship Canal Bridge preservation program. The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) said work begins this summer and will include weekend full closures and a monthlong northbound lane reduction starting July 21, 2025; preservation work is expected to continue on a staged schedule through 2027.

WSDOT northwest region administrator Brian Nielsen told the committee the Ship Canal Bridge is roughly 60 years old and has required frequent emergency repairs in recent years. "The bridge is about 60 years old, and it's been about 40 years since we've done a major preservation project on it," Nielsen said, and noted WSDOT had made over 200 emergency repairs in the past five years.

WSDOT described the first summer work as two northbound lane reductions bookended by weekendlong full closures to establish and remove work zones; the longer four‑week northbound lane reduction (beginning in the early hours of July 21, 2025) will run roughly from the SR 520 interchange to Northeast 40th Street, and weekend full closures will extend from Interstate 90 to Northeast 40th. WSDOT said striping and some other activities are weather dependent and that the agency and partners chose dates with an eye to event schedules, historic weather and regional work.

City staff described a five‑pillar mitigation approach: active monitoring and operations, transit and travel‑demand measures, interagency coordination, right‑of‑way management, and public communications. Gonthe Lingham (as introduced in the meeting) described deployments already in place: 14 new cameras and eight traffic communications nodes to improve live monitoring, a newly designated bus lane on State Route 99, and outreach packages for businesses. SDOT said it will limit street closures on primary arterials during the July full closure to preserve alternate routes.

Community and business representatives said the work is necessary but will be disruptive. Alex Hudson, executive director of Commute Seattle, called the preservation project "a vitally important project," while also urging that the closure be used as a learning opportunity to improve monitoring and reliability. Lars Erickson of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce said deferring preservation would lead to higher future costs and urged regional coordination to protect the movement of people and goods.

Public commenters at the meeting raised concerns about construction impacts and mitigation. Dan French, an in‑person speaker, criticized SDOT's project designs and called for safer designs and more responsive agency oversight. A remote commenter, David Ames, urged the city to require contractors to run multiple shifts and pay prevailing wages to accelerate work and reduce overlap of projects: "You can have 2 full shifts and make it a law that says, hey. If you wanna do business in Seattle, we want you to create a bunch more jobs and pay the prevailing wage to expedite the projects," Ames said.

Agencies described outreach and communications materials translated into seven languages, variable message signs on the state system, electronic message boards, and targeted communications with large venues and freight stakeholders. WSDOT and SDOT said they will convene interagency operations and performance monitoring groups during closures, run regular coordination calls, and evaluate results from this summer's closures to refine mitigation ahead of future work in 2026 and 2027. SDOT noted that the legislature provided mitigation funding to the region this session; city staff said approximately $4.5 million was allocated for Revive I‑5 mitigation work, with about $2 million expected to go to SDOT for projects including SR 99 bus‑lane implementation, travel‑demand management measures and signal/communications improvements for key corridors.

Committee members asked about impacts spreading to alternate north‑south corridors such as the Ballard‑Interbay Regional Transportation Corridor and about coordination with freight and the Port of Seattle; staff said monitoring and coordination are planned and that additional corridor‑specific responses would be developed as lessons are learned from the imminent closures. No committee vote or ordinance was taken on June 17; the agencies said the work will proceed under WSDOT project authority and city‑agency coordination for mitigation and communications.