Q & A | Flashing lights snarl traffic | I-90 HOV work

Q: I live in North Bend and travel daily on Interstate 90 to Bellevue. The traffic usually backs up in the westbound lanes in the morning where the high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane begins on the west side of Issaquah. On a Friday, the traffic was moving smoothly but suddenly stopped and became bumper-to-bumper about one mile east of Eastgate. I expected to find an accident but was sadly surprised to find that the cause of the slowdown was a state Department of Transportation truck parked on the right with its lights flashing. I'm not sure what the worker was doing or how important it was, but I certainly know that this one individual caused a massive traffic snarl. Do the managers at the WSDOT try to schedule small-maintenance types of work when it would not have an impact on the traffic?

A: Although flashing lights are a visual distraction for drivers, WSDOT is not in the business of complicating traffic situations on purpose, said Alice Fiman, a spokeswoman for WSDOT's office for maintenance and operations. Flashing lights are mainly a safety precaution for workers.

"When you see those lights, you usually know that there is a person somewhere in the vicinity, whether it be a citizen that was helping [to clear an accident], a DOT worker or State Patrol," Fiman said.

The WSDOT does its best to plan road maintenance outside the peak hours of traffic out of basic courtesy, Fiman said. She used work in Pierce County this past week as an example: Workers replaced traffic-delineator wands, the plastic poles that serve as lane markers, between 4 and 9 on Sunday morning, choosing a low-impact time and day to complete the work.

WSDOT trucks do show up unscheduled as well. Often, workers must respond to emergencies regardless of how bad traffic is. Blown-out tires or items falling off trucks are common examples of hazardous road situations WSDOT deals with.

In 2006, WSDOT worked on regional highways for 226,793 hours, Fiman said. That maintenance includes work on drainage, landscape, roadsides, bridges and tunnels, snow and ice and traffic control.

I-90 HOV lanes

construction

WSDOT and Sound Transit plan to add HOV lanes to the outer roadway of I-90 between Seattle and Bellevue, and the project will lead to lane closures in the coming week.

The I-90 Two-Way Transit project is a two-year effort that will include new I-90 HOV on- and offramps on Mercer Island and improvements to I-90 HOV access at Bellevue Way. The first stage of the project calls for building a westbound HOV lane between East Mercer Way and 80th Avenue Southeast and a westbound HOV exit ramp at 80th Avenue Southeast. The lane closures are:

• Saturday: Surveyors will close the left lane of eastbound I-90 between 80th Avenue Southeast and the East Channel from 4 a.m. to 10 a.m.

• Monday and Tuesday: Crews will close the two left lanes of westbound I-90 between I-405 and Shorewood Drive from 9 p.m. Monday to 5 a.m. Tuesday.

• Monday to next Friday: Crews will close the left lane of the I-90 center roadway between I-405 and Shorewood Drive from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. the next day.

• Tuesday to next Friday: Crews will close the left lane of westbound I-90 between I-405 and Shorewood Drive from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. the next day.

Evergreen Point Floating Bridge: Monthly maintenance will be performed on the Highway 520 bridge Thursday. Work will be done between 12:30 a.m. and 5 a.m. and the bridge will be intermittently closed for up to 30 minutes at a time.

Bellevue: Paving work will close Southeast Lake Hills Boulevard between 148th and 150th avenues southeast beginning today at 8 a.m. The road is scheduled to remain closed through next Friday.

Fall City: Work will begin Monday on the new roundabout at the junction of highways 202 and 203.

Tiffany Wan: 206-464-8305 or twan@seattletimes.com