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The 520 Montlake Bridge Project is just about finished after five years of construction. What’s left to wrap up?

The widened 520 from the floating bridge to Montlake. It added a new 3-acre lid over the freeway at Montlake. There’s a new bike and pedestrian bridge and better access on and off the freeway. Montlake Boulevard was also upgraded.

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Just about everything is open.

“We have gotten all of the lanes open,” Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) spokesperson Steve Peer told ³ÉÈËXÕ¾ Newsradio. “We’ve gotten all of the trails open on the lid. We have the new bike and pedestrian bridge open and running.”

And people really like that new bridge. It has some nice vistas of the lake, Husky Stadium and the Cut.

“It’s bigger than people think,” Peer said. “I think when you get out there and there are a lot of connections to go from one place to another that are really convenient.”

But not quite everything made the . There are a few odds and ends to take care of.

“We still have to do some landscaping,” Peer said. “We still need to adjust the lights and the fire suppression system under the lid. So we’ll use some nighttime closures in January to do those. We’ll wait until after the holidays.”

The Lid isn’t fully operational yet. Metro has yet to start service there.

“Metro still needs to figure out some of the things they need to have happen before it can fully open and function, and that’s probably going to be first quarter of next year,” Peer said.

WSDOT also built a new reversible bus and HOV lane between 520 and the Intestate 5 (I-5) Express Lanes. This is actually part of the final piece of the total project, getting from Montlake to I-5. The plan was to have this open for bus service as the next phase of construction started, but it will not open until the final segment is finished, in about five years.

“Mainly because it goes right through a construction zone, and they will use that in part for some staging and things of that nature,” Peer explained. “So, unfortunately, we’ll have to wait another half a dozen years before that opens.”

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Contractors are already drilling piles into to build the construction platforms for the new bridges there.

The legislature still has to figure out how to pay for this final segment. The one and only bid came in 70% above estimates. The current price tag is $1.4 billion.

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