SR 525 Bridge Over Railroad and Paving Projects

Exciting projects are happening on State Route 525! We are hard at work with multiple projects along SR 525 this year. This blog post highlights some recent accomplishments, current events and future direction for the route.

New paving on SR 525 in Lynnwood

We repaved a section of SR 525 between the I-5/I-405 interchange and SR 99 in Lynnwood this past construction season. Eight ramps were also repaved. This section of SR 525 was built in 1984 and was last paved more than 20 years ago in 2004. Preservation work is needed to keep the highway in a state of good repair as more people use SR 525.

The asphalt on this stretch of SR 525 outlived its expected 15-year lifespan. Cracks, ruts, and potholes have developed through the years. These make the roadway uneven, causing pooled water and reduced tire traction. This makes drivers slow down to handle the wet conditions, which impact travel times. Our updates will improve driving conditions and extend highway life.

Community engagement highlight – summer 2025 online open house

We wrapped up our summer 2025 online open house for both the SR 525 Mukilteo Bridge Over Railroad – Bridge Replacement and SR 525 Spur Vic to Mukilteo Ferry Vic – Paving and ADA projects. Thank you for the feedback!

The online open house aimed to understand:

• Active transportation priorities.
• Issues with the existing bridge, bike and pedestrian improvements.
• How people currently move through the area, as well as future use with new facilities.

Nearly 3,000 people viewed the online open house and 87 submitted survey responses. Survey highlights are included below.

• Over one in four respondents walk, bike or roll through the area daily. Nearly one in three respondents stated they would travel the corridor daily if new improvements were made.
• Over 60% of respondents ranked “address safety concerns for those who walk, bike, or roll” as a project priority. “Wider sidewalks” followed, which was a priority for 44% of respondents. Other priorities included:
• Keeping roads open during construction
• Improving the flow of traffic
• Being aware of the impacts of community growth
• Effective transit integration
• Beautification and safety
• When asked to select the top three facilities that respondents would like to see included in the project:
• 52% picked wider sidewalks
• 45% picked separated bike lanes
• 44% picked separated shared use paths

Find the project’s summer 2025 online open house report for full summary of what we heard.

Learn more about the project by reading its FAQ document.

What is Currently Happening – SR 525 Spur Vic to Mukilteo Ferry Vic Paving & ADA

Construction has started for the SR 525 Spur Vic to Mukilteo Ferry Vic – Paving and ADA project. This project will pave SR 525 right up to the railroad bridge that leads to the Mukilteo Ferry Terminal. The project will repave SR 525 with Hot Mix Asphalt and construct Americans with Disability Act upgrades from the SR 525 Spur, which is located just north of Harbour Place, to 2nd Street.

Work will happen nightly (9 p.m. to 7 a.m.) on Sunday nights to Friday mornings. Northbound SR 525 will alternate traffic in the intersections between Paine Field and the Mukilteo Ferry Terminal (mileposts 5 to 8).

We are also making the following improvements:

• New bike lanes from Paine Field Boulevard to 84th Street Southwest
• Intersection improvements, with rectangular rapid flashing beacons, at multiple locations:
• 88th Street Southwest
• 81st Place Southwest
• 80th Street Southwest
• Clover Lane

Due to the short timeframe to deliver the upgrades, the full vision of active transportation facilities needed to meet the complete streets requirement will be built by a later, unfunded project.

What to Expect on SR 525 Moving Forward – Mukilteo Bridge Over Railroad Replacement Project Design & Construction

We picked a two-way bike lane design (also called a cycle track) to meet complete streets requirements. The alternative includes the following to serve those who bike, walk, roll and access transit and decrease vehicle speeds:

• Buffered two-way bike lanes (cycle track) and sidewalk on the west side of SR 525.
• Narrower traffic lanes (11 feet).
• Buffered sidewalk on the east side of SR 525.

The design process for the SR 525 Mukilteo Bridge Over Railroad Replacement project is now underway and is expected to continue through spring 2028.

There will be opportunities to learn more about the project as bridge design continues. The expected construction timeline is spring 2028 through winter 2030.

Beneath the bridge: Meet the interns helping protect Washington's bridges

By: Tina Werner

Most people cross a bridge without giving it a second thought. For Austin and Katelyn, they say every bridge tells a story.

This summer, the two civil engineering students traded college classrooms for hard hats and safety vests. Instead of solving problems from a textbook, they spent their summer helping inspect bridges. We have more than 3,400 bridges and overpasses we maintain across Washington.

Austin stands on the shoulder of US 12 near Morton to measure the depth of water and the conditions of Lake Creek below. This is an important part of bridge inspections, especially for bridges that cross rivers or other waterways.

They climbed under bridges, tested aging bridge decks and noted potential repairs. This hands-on experience gave them a look at the work that keeps our transportation system safe and operational. Traveling across the state and being mentored by Washington’s top bridge engineers – also a bonus.

Learning by doing
Austin, a civil engineering student at Saint Martin's University in Lacey, is spending his second summer with us. Austin is a United States Army veteran and said public service is important to him.

Austin in his United States Army uniform during an airborne operations training in 2019.

"I've always wanted to do work that serves people," Austin said.

His internship focused largely on bridge inspections. Working alongside experienced bridge engineers, he helped document bridge conditions. He learned to look for signs of wear and tear and how inspections help prioritize repairs.

One of his favorite discoveries?

"By far the coolest part was learning about Washington’s timber bridges," Austin said. "We don't really study those in school because they're an older bridge design."

Washington is home to hundreds of older bridges. Many of them have safely served travelers for decades due to regular inspections, maintenance and preservation work. In fact, we maintain 342 bridges* that are more than 80 years old, showing how ongoing care can extend a bridge's service life. Of those, 57 bridges are timber structures and over 80 years old.

Looking beyond the roadway
Katelyn is a Washington State University civil engineering student. She spent much of her summer seeing bridges from a perspective most travelers never experience.

Katelyn stands inside the bucket of an under-bridge inspection truck along State Route 25 over the Columbia River in Northport. This summer, she helped perform chloride testing on bridge decks. She also helped inspect bridge components and examined structures from below. The testing helps find where salt may be causing corrosion inside the concrete before larger problems develop.

"My friends didn't realize we inspect the belly of a bridge," Katelyn said. "Most people only think about the roadway they drive on. There's an entire structure underneath that has to be inspected piece by piece."

Finding issues early allows us to schedule maintenance before damage becomes more extensive. This helps us extend a bridge's lifespan. It also reduces future costs and minimizes disruptions for travelers. This work coincides with the day-to-day work by our maintenance crews.

Every bridge is different
One lesson both interns quickly learned is that no two bridges are the same. Bridge engineers inspect each structure on a regular schedule. Typically, every two years, they check its condition and identify potential repairs.

Some inspections happen from under-bridge inspection trucks. These special trucks allow engineers to reach areas hidden from drivers above. Others need specialty underwater dive teams to inspect bridge foundations. Our movable bridges need mechanical and electrical expert inspectors to do their jobs.

Austin said riding in an under-bridge inspection truck while examining bridges was one of the highlights of his summer.

Underneath the SR 509 bridge near Dash Point State Park. Austin helped inspect several components of the bridge with our bridge preservation team.

"It gives you a completely different perspective when you are in a UBIT below the deck," he said.

The work also showed them that bridge repairs rarely come with an off-the-shelf solution. Many repairs need engineers to design custom fixes because every bridge has its own history, design and challenges.

"People think bridges are all the same," Katelyn said. "They're not. Every bridge requires its own solution. That's what makes this work exciting."

Building tomorrow's workforce
The internship also offered something unexpected: seeing women in engineering leadership roles on our Bridges and Structures Team.

"It was inspiring to see women leading projects and solving complex engineering problems," Katelyn said.

Austin and Katelyn finished their internships on Thursday, August 20 and will now return to college this fall. Both say the experience confirmed they chose the right career path. They hope to someday work for the state of Washington in some capacity.

Their summer wasn't just about inspecting bridges. It was about learning how engineering improves people's everyday lives. Bridges are one component of our state’s complex and evolving transportation system. They keep families connected, support local communities and help millions of people get to work or the grocery store each day. For these interns, every inspection was another step toward becoming the next generation of engineers. We look forward to this next generation, who will design, inspect and preserve Washington's bridges for decades to come.

Learn more about our internship opportunities. And check out our careers in engineering, maintenance and transportation planning.

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*Based on June 2025 bridge data.

Listening to what the numbers tell us – SR 9/SR 204 roundabout to be rechannelized

 We listen carefully to what our highways tell us.

Though the roads obviously can’t talk, we hear what they’re saying through reports from drivers and community partners who use the roads on a daily basis. We watch with a careful eye, noting how traffic behaves. And, perhaps most importantly, we dig into data to find out if changes we’ve made have the desired effect.

When the numbers show we can still make improvements, our traffic engineers dig in to figure out how. We don’t have an “our way or the highway” mentality – at WSDOT, our way IS ensuring the highway is operating safely and efficiently.

A great example of this will happen Saturday night, Aug. 22, in Lake Stevens.

In 2023, we opened two multi-lane roundabouts on SR 9 in Lake Stevens to help reduce serious injury and fatal crashes and improve traffic flow through the corridor.

In summer 2023, we built two multi-lane roundabouts along State Route 9 in the heart of the busy Frontier Village retail area. These roundabouts were part of a seven-year, $69 million effort working with the community to reduce the potential for serious injury and fatal crashes in the area, limit SR 9 congestion, provide better access to area businesses and improve travel through the area for people walking, biking, taking transit and driving.

Along with the SR 9 roundabouts at SR 204 and Vernon Road, the project added smaller roundabouts at Vernon Road’s intersections with North Davies Road and 91st Avenue Northeast, plus new sidewalks and bike paths.

Then we watched, listened and analyzed to see if the new roundabouts were working as intended.

Digging into the numbers

We’ve fielded concerns from people using the new roundabouts and remained in contact with Lake Stevens officials since the roundabout opened. But it usually takes about three years of post-construction data to see how well a new intersection is working.

Now that we nearly have three full years of data, we have a better picture of how they’ve been performing. Overall, the data showed that collision numbers have decreased since the roundabouts opened. After averaging 16.3 crashes per month the first year after major construction finished (July 2023 through June 2024), that number was down to about 12 collisions per month during the most recent full year since the roundabout opened (July 2025 through June 2026, though that number could change slightly as the most recent collision data is finalized).

While this trend is promising, our engineers developed ideas for further improvement at the roundabout by targeting the locations where crashes are occurring the most.

Chart shows location of crashes entering the SR 9/SR 204 roundabout from the east and the west from July 2023 through June 2026. Safety Disclaimer and Subject Figure: Under 23 U.S. Code § 148 and 23 U.S. Code § 407, safety data, reports, surveys, schedules, lists compiled or collected for the purpose of identifying, evaluating, or planning the safety enhancement of potential crash sites, hazardous roadway conditions, or railway-highway crossings are not subject to discovery or admitted into evidence in a Federal or State court proceeding or considered for other purposes in any action for damages arising from any occurrence at a location mentioned or addressed in such reports, surveys, schedules, lists, or data.

Finding areas for improvement

Looking closer at the numbers, our engineers found that about 86% of the crashes since July 2023 related to the two new roundabouts on SR 9 (419 of 490 crashes) happened at the SR 9/SR 204 intersection.

Drilling even deeper into the crash data at the SR 9/SR 204 roundabout, we found more than 50% of all the reported crashes happened on the SR 204 approach on the west side of the intersection and the Seventh Place Northeast approach to the east.

It is in those two areas where we will focus on making improvements.

WSDOT plans to make four lane striping modifications to the SR 9/SR 204 roundabout in Lake Stevens to help create simpler decisions for drivers.

The solution: Making it simpler

After identifying these collision trends, our traffic engineers set out to find solutions. Turns out, we think the easiest way to reduce crashes is to … well, make things easier.

We plan to make four striping modifications to the SR 9/SR 204 roundabout that we believe will create simpler decisions for drivers and, therefore, reduce chances for crashes. We plan to use lane markings to rechannelize parts of the roundabout by:

1. Removing one of the circulating lanes between the westbound Seventh Place Northeast and eastbound SR 204 approaches.
2. Removing one southbound SR 9 lane entering and exiting the roundabout.
3. Removing one westbound Seventh Place Northeast lane approaching the roundabout.
4. Making minor modifications to the striping on eastbound SR 204 lanes approaching the roundabout.

Not only will these changes create easier decisions for drivers, they also will reduce the number of potential conflict points between vehicles entering and circulating in the roundabout. It also right-sizes the intersection’s number of lanes to current traffic volumes, and it will calm eastbound, westbound and southbound traffic as it approaches the intersection.

Taking away a southbound lane on SR 9 could create more delays than drivers currently see. But we expect these changes will continue to reduce the number of collisions that occur at this busy intersection.

WSDOT will rechannel the SR 9/SR 204 roundabout in Lake Stevens Saturday night, Aug. 22, to reduce the number of places cars could come into conflict with each other and make decisions easier for drivers.

So, what’s next?

Unfortunately, the current pavement markings were not made in pencil, so making the adjustments will take a nighttime closure of the roundabout on Saturday night, Aug. 22. From 8 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 22, to 6 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 23, we will fully close the intersection so that we can remove the old pavement markings, install the new ones and make the SR 9/SR 204 roundabout easier to use. This work requires dry weather and may be rescheduled if rain is forecast.

During this closure, access will remain open to local businesses, but through traffic should detour using Market Place and Lundeen Parkway.

After the new pavement markings are installed, our traffic engineers will continue to monitor the intersection, making sure the changes we’ve made have the desired effect.

As our rechannelization efforts in Lake Stevens show, that’s not an empty promise – we listen to what our highways and the people who use them tell us.

Judkins Park Station Study: How Recent Crossing Improvements Have Lowered Speeds

The Judkins Park community in Seattle continues to grow. With the new Judkins Park Station now open, more people are walking, biking and taking transit. As the neighborhood grows, transportation improvements are leveling-up safety. We’re making it easier to travel on Rainier Avenue South at the Interstate 90 interchange.

The I‑90 ramps to Rainier Avenue South create busy intersections. That makes it challenging to walk, bike, roll or access transit. Cars move through these intersections quickly. Community members have shared concerns about vehicle speeds when crossing the ramps.

Data from the Judkins Park ramps shows that small changes can help reduce speeds. These changes improve safety for everyone traveling through the area. Here, you can see a raised crosswalk and crossing beacon installed by the Seattle Department of Transportation this year.

Our study focused on the safety, bicycle and pedestrian facilities at the ramp and Ranier Avenue South intersection, and access to transit. Our study identifies the recommends teeing-up the ramp intersections and eliminating one ramp. The ramp recommended to be removed is westbound I-90 to northbound Rainier Avenue South. These improvements are in the early stages of concept design. The next step in the process is a separate study to evaluate impacts to I-90. This study is subject to FHWA approval. Recently, we partnered with the Seattle DOT on an improvement project at this location. The project constructed the following quick-implementation improvements to three of the ramps:

• a raised crosswalk at the northbound Rainier to eastbound I-90 on-ramp. There was already a rectangular rapid flashing beacon here.
• a raised crosswalk and flashing beacon at the southbound Rainier to eastbound I-90 on-ramp
• a raised crosswalk and flashing beacon at the westbound I-90 to southbound Rainier off-ramp.

These improvements help slow the speed of vehicles traveling through the ramp intersections. We completed these improvements in March 2026. We also completed a before-and-after speed study to understand the effect of the improvements. We collected speed data for one-week periods before and after the changes. We used cameras installed at the crosswalks for this.

What the data shows

The study shows a small reduction in average speeds after the raised crosswalks and flashing beacons were installed. Even better, the results show a dramatic drop in the highest speeds recorded at each ramp.

Highlights include:

• Average speeds for vehicles at all three crosswalks are below 26mph. For reference, the speed limit on Rainier Avenue South is 25 mph.
• 85% of all vehicles traveled slower than 28 mph.
• The top speed at the crosswalk for the westbound I-90 off-ramp to southbound Rainier Avenue South dropped 45%, from 71 mph to 39 mph.
• The top speed at the crosswalk for the northbound Rainier Avenue South on-ramp to eastbound I-90 dropped 32%, from 68 mph to 46 mph.

The top speeds are the most challenging for people who bike, walk, roll or drive in the neighborhood. These changes in top speeds increase safety for all modes of travel.

Raised crosswalks have lowered vehicle speeds near the on- and off-ramps. Average speeds for vehicles at all three crosswalks are below 26 mph.

Why speed matters

Speed plays a key role in whether a crash results in serious injury or death. According to national safety research, you are more likely to survive a collision if vehicles are moving slower.

Small reductions in speed can have a big impact. By lowering both average speeds and the highest measured speeds, projects like this can enhance safety for everyone. Improvements like raised crosswalks make it safer for people walking, biking or rolling through the area.

Why these results matter

The joint SDOT/WSDOT project marks the first time that we have installed raised crosswalks on one of our roadways.

The results of the before-and-after study are consistent with what other agencies are seeing. Examples include a recent Hawaii DOT project and the Seattle DOT Speed humps. These combined results suggest that raised crosswalks can help calm and slow traffic. We’re helping communities take safety to the next level, even in areas like freeway ramps. These results will help us decide where to add raised crosswalks in the future.

Looking ahead

We are continuing to work on improving how people move through the area. With the Judkins Park light rail station now open, we are creating a multimodal transportation system. This means systems that work for everyone, whether they are walking, biking, taking transit or driving.

While there is more work ahead, these early improvements are a step forward. They show how targeted upgrades can make a big difference. Together, community input, data and smart design choices are helping unlock a safer, more connected Judkins Park area. These insights will continue to guide our decisions. We are working toward long-term improvements to safety, access and connectivity in the area.

We will continue to work with our partners to refine our recommended alternative. Read our fifth blog post about this project to learn more about the process. We’ll continue community engagement in the fall.

Study webpage: I-90 Judkins Park Station – Reconnecting Communities

Email updates: Sign up for Seattle area news and study updates.