Northbound I-5 traffic to split in Seattle overnight Feb. 22

People who use northbound Interstate 5 through downtown Seattle the night of Tuesday, Feb. 22 will have a choice to make – keep right if heading downtown, keep left to use the express lanes to go north of Lake Union.

Between 9 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 22, and 5 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 23, contractor crews working for the Washington State Department of Transportation will close the main lanes of I-5 from north of the exit to Dearborn-James-Madison streets to Olive Way. People who want to use a downtown Seattle exit will need to use exit 164A and go through the collector/distributor, which will rejoin the main lanes.

People going north of downtown can stay on the mainline, but will have to use the express lanes northbound, which only has exits for the University District, Lake City Way and Northgate before rejoining the mainline. The express lanes will be open until 4 a.m.

During the closure, crews will work on barriers as part of a project to change the Seneca Street off-ramp from an exit-only ramp to a through lane, creating a third through lane on northbound I-5. The third lane will open later this year.