WSDOT Announces Sudden Speed Limit Drop For Portion Of Highway 529 Between Marysville & Everett

The area of the speed limit drop is in orange. Map provided by WSDOT

– Worn steel plates on the 96-year-old southbound State Route 529 Steamboat Slough Bridge means the speed limit approaching the bridge in Marysville has been reduced to 25 mph as of Thursday, June 22.

The bridge remains safe for travel, but regular inspections discovered 12 of the original gusset plates – which connect steel beams on the bridge – need to be replaced. The lower speed limit reduces vibrations on the bridge, which lessens stress on the entire bridge structure.

To replace the plates, contractor crews working for the Washington State Department of Transportation will need three multi-day closures of the southbound Steamboat Slough Bridge. No dates have been announced, but when the closures are in place people who regularly use that section of SR 529 will have to detour via Interstate 5.

These bridge repairs have been added to a larger project that includes repairs to the northbound SR 529 Snohomish River Bridge and the northbound and southbound Steamboat Slough bridges. Work on that project will begin later this summer.

The southbound Steamboat Slough Bridge is part of the original roadway that carried both directions of US 99 when it opened in 1927. The current northbound lanes opened in the mid-1950s and the original roadway became one way southbound. The highway’s name changed in the 1970s when US 99 was decommissioned and the roadway became part of the state highway system.

People who are traveling can get real-time traffic information on mobile phones with the WSDOT traffic app and by following the WSDOT traffic Twitter feed.