"And for the transportation department? Perhaps one closure?" Perhaps not. It’s time for the annual summer SR 18 weekend closure.

The details: From 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 15, to 5 a.m. Monday, Aug. 18, eastbound and westbound SR 18 will close between I-90 and Issaquah-Hobart Road (mileposts 17-28). Only local traffic to Southeast 104th Street will be permitted south of I-90 during the closure. No vehicles will be allowed over Tiger Mountain summit, so you’ll need to seek alternate routes. Freight traffic should use I-405 and I-90 to get around throughout the weekend. Issaquah-Hobart Road and Issaquah city streets are not suitable for semi-trucks. Our crews will move forward with this work, rain or shine.

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS TO ME?!" During the closure, we'll do some maintenance and lane widening. Our crews will repair damaged guardrail, improve sign visibility, do vegetation management, conduct safety checks and repave sections of the highway. On top of that, contractor crews will advance work on new lanes of SR 18 between Lake Creek and Deep Creek, south of the I-90 interchange. We’re widening a 2-mile stretch of SR 18 to two lanes in each direction, which means leveling and preparing the new lanes for a final layer of asphalt, milling and grinding asphalt, installing guardrail, landscaping and removing temporary barriers. That widening work will finish this fall. 

Knocking out all of this maintenance and construction all at once in one weekend helps limit the number of future SR 18 closures over Tiger Mountain summit. We know doing this closure during the Revive I-5 closure weekend is challenging. There’s just not enough weekends in a summer to complete all of these closures individually. You’ll be able to get where you need to go, it’s just going to take a little longer. Plan ahead, know before you go, and hang in there!

A double-stuf closure-o along SR 18 this weekend