I-5 travelers face major delays when Bellingham repaving begins April 1

If you're planning to travel on Interstate-5 through Bellingham, be ready for major backups when repaving of a three-mile stretch of freeway begins April 1.

Crews will close one lane of I-5 in each direction at night and on weekends for repaving — and big delays are expected on I-5 between Samish Way and Sunset Drive in the center of Bellingham.

The repaving of ramps and the road stretches along three miles of the freeway and the roadwork is expected to take about two months.

For the first two weeks in April, lanes primarily will be closed Sunday through Thursday nights from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., according to Dustin Terpening of the Washington State Dept. of Transportation.

There will no closures Friday, April 4, or Saturday, April 5, but the freeway will close again on the night of Sunday, April 6, at 8 p.m. Starting Friday, April 11, there will be a weekend long-closure (if weather permits) for repaving, with one lane for three miles in each direction closed continuously from 10 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Monday. There could be a total of four weekend closures for road work; it's hoped the roadwork will be completed before Memorial Day weekend.

WSDOT recommends taking alternate routes if possible; an average of 76,000 cars a day use that stretch of freeway on weekends (when the closures will be the most extensive).

To get more information — including a graph showing the best and worst times to drive that part of I-5 and a map of the construction area — see the Washington State Department of Transportation Web site: www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/I5/36thStToSlaterRdRepairs/

Kristin Jackson: kjackson@seattletimes.com