Transportation Department close to lifting I-90 lane restrictions

YAKIMA — The state Transportation Department said today it is close to lifting the restrictions that have bottlenecked traffic on Interstate 90 at Snoqualmie Pass since a rockslide last month.

The freeway has been restricted to one lane in each direction at 35 mph while crews have been stabilizing the slope and removing rock debris.

Weather permitting, the second eastbound lane will be opened Tuesday, and the speed limit in those lanes will rise to 55 mph, said DOT spokesman Mark Ettesvold.

The other westbound lane should open by this weekend, with the speed limit in both directions returned to 65 mph.

Boulders the size of refrigerators tumbled onto the road east of the 3,022-foot summit Nov. 6.

The slide was the second major rockfall in as many months in the Snoqualmie Pass area, where average weekday traffic amounts to about 28,000 cars and trucks. Three women died in September when a boulder crushed their Volvo west of the summit as they were returning home from a concert at the Gorge Amphitheater in George.