Bridges to replace Snoqualmie Pass snow shed

SNOQUALMIE PASS — The contractor improving a five-mile stretch of Interstate 90 at Snoqualmie Pass has come up with a new idea for replacing a snow shed.

Instead of building a bigger snow shed to take avalanches over the highway, Guy F. Atkinson Construction told the Transportation Department it would be better to bridge the avalanche chutes and led the snow slide underneath the freeway.

The Yakima Herald-Republic reported that the cost of two bridges would be about the same as an expanded snow shed and would be cheaper to maintain.

The work is part of a $551 million project to improve and widen I-90 to three lanes in each direction on the east side of the pass near Lake Keechelus.

The snow shed was built in 1950 and covers only westbound lanes.