WSDOT is lowering the I-5 speed limit south of Bellingham near Burlington this week
Drivers headed south on Interstate 5 will have to let up on the gas pedal a little earlier before reaching Burlington and wait a little longer to punch it on the way home to Bellingham.
In an effort to improve safety, speed limits are being lowered from 70 mph to 60 mph this week in both directions on a stretch of I-5 north of Burlington, the Washington State Department of Transportation said in a statement last week.
Speed limits will be reduced between state Highway 20 at milepost 230 and Cook Road at milepost 232 starting Wednesday. Previously, the 60 mph limit started at the Chuckanut Drive exit.
“Our traffic team is always monitoring the area and looking for opportunities to make safety improvements. WSDOT’s Target Zero program seeks to eliminate serious injury and fatal collisions on our roadways, so our goal is always to reduce the potential for these types of collisions to occur,” WSDOT’s Madison Sehlke told The Bellingham Herald.
That stretch of freeway is seeing more traffic, Sehlke said in an email.
“In the last 10 years, between 2013 and 2023, the average daily traffic increased by about 8,000 vehicles per day through this section of Interstate 5, in Burlington,” she said.
Annual average daily traffic was 49,000 cars and trucks in 2013, and that figure was 57,000 cars and trucks in 2023, WSDOT research shows.
The left lane of southbound I-5 will be closed from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 15, so crews can install new speed limit signs. New speed limit signs will be installed Wednesday morning. Once the new signs are in place, the new speed limit goes into effect.
The 60 mph speed limit on I-5 continues until the freeway expands to three lanes south of Mount Vernon.
