I appreciate the clever wit of our team at the WSDOT. They make the normally dry topic of traffic interesting. I heard about the the highway-line-painter blowing a line earlier this week, and I’ve seen the glorious yellow line as I drive by that daily. Though it’s a bummer about the broken painter machine, I was able to get some good Twitter tread from it. So much clever repartee. Anyway, their email is below for your edification and delight.

A few comments: the last bit is about this Sunday’s Sounders/Mariners games.  Since the games overlap, traffic will be awful. I lived that dream (nightmare) when I worked at Starbucks corporate in SODO (shudder). I recommend Sound Transit’s Sounder Train for these events. It’s slick and easy. If you live around Edmonds, Mukilteo or Everett, the stops are exceptionally convenient. Use it! Make your life better.

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Paint cleanup on aisle four. …I mean on Sunday

Some of us paint outside the lines because we’re creative. Some – like me – because we aren’t good painters. And sometimes, your equipment just fails. That’s what happened this pastTuesday to one of our lane striping crews on southbound I-5 in Everett, when, during some routine work, a hose on their striping truck broke. This left a stripe of yellow paint in the middle of the HOV lane between about 112th Street Southwest and 128th Street Southwest.

We put up signs warning drivers and everyone seemed to handle it well, but we’re going to fix it all the same. So from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. Sunday, May 31, the two left lanes of southbound I-5 from 112th to 128th will be closed while we cover up the paint and get things back to normal.

Nighttime SR 522 ramp closure in Monroe this week

We’re getting oh so close. Our SR 522 widening project in Monroe is nearly complete (they’re mostly down to just final touch-up work) but we still have some closures we need to do before we can call it finished.

The eastbound SR 522 off-ramp to 164th Street Southeast/West Main Street will be closed from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. nightly from Monday, June 1 to the morning of Friday, June 5 while contractor crews working for WSDOT do drainage work. A signed detour will be in place. West Main Street from Fryelands Boulevard to the roundabout at the bottom of the closed ramp will also be closed and drivers will follow a pilot car through the work zone.

SR 20 paving project starts in June

It’s not Snohomish County, but probably worth knowing about. As part of our SR 20 paving project between Anacortes and Oak Harbor that starts next month, we’ll be repaving the Deception Pass and Canoe Pass bridges sometime between mid-July and end of August. That will require the bridges to close to traffic for five nights (7:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m.) starting on a Sunday and ending on a Friday morning. The bridges will be open on Friday and Saturday nights. Stay tuned for exact dates.

Take me out to the ballgames Sunday

It’s going to be a traffic crunch headed to Sodo on Sunday as the Mariners play the Cleveland Indians at 1:10 p.m. at Safeco Field and the Sounders play the New York Red Bulls at 2 p.m. at CenturyLink Field. If you’re like me and you’re going to one of the games (I’ll have my scarf up for an Oba flip), you’ll want to leave really early, maybe consider taking transit (Sounder trains will be running to the stadiums on Sunday) and definitely pack patience. Have a great weekend!

Questions, comments, suggestions, favorite pizza toppings (I’m an onion, green pepper and tomato guy)? Send them to Mike Allende at allendm@wsdot.wa.gov