PORT ANGELES — The state Department of Transportation plans to shift traffic onto the new lanes of U.S. Highway 101 between Port Angeles and Sequim at 7 a.m. Monday.
Agency spokesman Doug Adamson said the shift remains dependent on the weather.
“It will be a quick little shift,” Adamson said Tuesday.
“The traffic impacts should be minimal.”
Traffic will be moved onto the new lanes on a 1.2-mile segment of the highway between Barr Road and Peninsula Septic Tanks.
The shift is needed to allow crews to build the second of two new bridges over McDonald Creek, Adamson said.
Several more traffic shifts will occur this spring and summer as the state widens the highway to four lanes on the 3.5-mile segment between Kitchen-Dick and Shore roads.
The state awarded a $27.1 million construction contract to Scarsella Bros. of Kent last summer.
DOT officials have said the widening project will be completed by the end of this year.
Once completed, motorists will have two lanes in both directions for the entire 13-mile leg between east Port Angeles and west Sequim.
East- and westbound traffic will be separated by a 32-foot median to reduce the chances of head-on wrecks.
The posted speed will remain 45 mph during construction.
The speed limit will return to its original 55 mph after the project is finished.