Major 520 Construction Set For July In Redmond

REDMOND, WA - WSDOT and the city of Redmond will begin a major construction project next month that will split in two one of the busiest 520 off-ramps. Here are the details from a city press release:

A new project to ease backups on a popular eastbound State Route 520 exit to Redmond is scheduled to get underway next month.

The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and the City of Redmond are partnering on a project to split the eastbound SR 520 off-ramp to Northeast 40th and 51st streets into separate ramps.

“In the morning, drivers headed to Northeast 51st Street end up stuck behind drivers exiting to Northeast 40th Street,” said WSDOT Assistant Area Traffic Engineer Maan Sidhu. “As a result, the ramp traffic sometimes backs up on the mainline. By splitting the ramps, we can ease some of the congestion and driver frustration from being stuck on the existing single ramp.”

Construction is scheduled to begin in July and should be complete by October 2018. A similar project to split the westbound ramps was completed in 2015.

The Washington State Legislature provided funds in the Connecting Washington transportation package to Redmond which are being used to design and build this project.

Image via WSDOT