Traffic changes set at interchange project

Planners hope temporary traffic changes starting next week will shorten part of the construction on the Salmon Creek Interchange Project, near the junction of Interstate 5 and Interstate 205.

Crews will close a section of Northeast 139th Street, from the north entrance to the Fred Meyer store and surrounding retail center to Northeast Tenney Road. Northeast 139th will remain open to two-way traffic from the closed area to Northeast 10th Avenue.

Northeast 10th Avenue will reopen to two-way traffic between Northeast Tenney Road and Northeast 139th Street. Since mid-May, this section has been part of a one-way traffic pattern.

In addition, part of Tenney Road and 139th Street will be reduced to a single lane westbound, while two eastbound lanes remain open.

Both changes begin Wednesday. They’re expected to last six to eight weeks while workers finish paving work, sidewalks and traffic signals on Clark County’s portion of the $133 million project. The county is jointly building the project with the Washington State Department of Transportation.

The traffic changes will allow crews to finish that portion of the project by Nov. 1. Without the changes, major construction there likely would have continued into spring 2012.

The entire Salmon Creek Interchange Project is expected to be finished in 2014.