Construction is taking the Fourth of July holiday off

It’s a grab bag as we head into the Fourth of July holiday, starting with some good news for the ferry service.

We were worried passengers on the Mukilteo-Clinton run would have to suffer through longer-than-normal wait times over the holiday because of the damage to the Suquamish. It had been in dry dock the last few weeks after being damaged by a crab pot line, but it is back in service. That keeps a 144-car Olympic Class ferry on that route.

The ferry service expects 700,000 passengers to use the boats through Sunday. If you are planning to return home on a ferry, you better get to a terminal early, or you will face long wait times.

And speaking of ferries, you need to be careful about the fireworks you bring on board. All illegal fireworks are not allowed on any ferry. This includes missile-type rockets, bottle rockets, M-80s, firecrackers and any homemade or altered fireworks.

There shouldn’t be too many fireworks on the roads, at least for construction. Construction is off for the holiday, but you need to get ready for the rest of the year.

There will be no rock blasting on I-90 near Cle Elum. And there will be no work on the Vantage Bridge over the Columbia River. All four lanes are open through next Monday. Revive I-5 is off. The southbound expansion joint work where I-5 goes over Military Road is complete. But it will return northbound near Boeing Field next weekend.

And for all of you heading to the beach this weekend, don’t forget the major road closures on SR 8 between Olympia and Montesano. A large fish passage project is replacing bridges on that corridor. Heading eastbound out of Montesano, be sure to prepare for a zipper merge. That one backs up several miles. Please use both lanes approaching the merge and don’t cut people off trying to merge properly.

You have one more chance to tell the Washington State Transportation (WST) Commission your thoughts about increasing the tolls on 520 .

There will be a special hearing July 10 to discuss them. The plan is to raise them by 10%, varying by time of day and day of week. The number of price variations would go from the existing eight, to six.

The increases would go into effect next month.

The 520 corridor isn’t making enough money to meet its financial obligations. The tolls need to go up to cover them.

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