Bicycles will roll across Seattle's I-90 bridge as traffic stops

The Cascade Bicycle Club knows when and where to find potential converts to bicycle commuting.

Their latest project will be encouraging commuters to beat the Interstate 90 bridge repair backups by using their bicycles.

The Washington Department of Transportation began working on the I-90 bridge across Lake Washington on Sunday, a job that will continue until about July 20. “Unprecedented levels” of traffic congestion are anticipated.

Although the westbound mainline bridge will be closed around the clock, the bike/pedestrian path will remain open because two temporary bridges have been installed.

The Seattle-based bicycle club, among the largest and most active in the nation, is launching its “Bridging with Bikes” program to encourage commuters to use their bicycles instead of cars.

Fuel stop

One way they're doing that is to open a fuel stop for bicyclists on the west side of Mercer Island from 6-9 a.m. Fridays, July 10, 17 and 24. The green Cascade tent will be set up next to the trail in the grassy area west of West Mercer Way.

Novice commuters also can meet a “bike pilot” at the fuel stop to lead bicycle riders on the best routes to Downtown Seattle, the University District, and Bellevue.

See a Cascade Bicycle Club map of the rest stop on Mercer Island and destinations.

Temporary bridges

Cascade is able to promise an uninterrupted bike ride between Seattle and Mercer Island because WSDOT is installing temporary bike bridges around the expansion joints that crews are removing.

Bicyclists must dismount and walk across the temporary bridges, which have tight corners. They're mounted on scaffolding on the floating bridge pontoons.

Although the two temporary bridges will be open most of the time, they'll be closed for up to 10 hours when the new expansion joints are lowered into place by crane. WSDOT says the work is scheduled when fewest cyclists are using the bridge.

The repair work

WSDOT will be funneling five lanes of traffic down to two from Sunday through July 20, which they say will cause backups of at least an hour.

In addition to bicycling, WSDOT is suggesting vanpools, carpools, or buses to get in and out of Seattle.