UPDATE: Eastbound Turn Lane on NE 116th near I-405 Reopened

UPDATE: Crews reopened the left turn lane from eastbound NE 116th St. to northbound 120th Ave NE near I-405 at about 3:10 p.m. Wednesday after repairing a broke water line. Below is the orginal story about the closure that was posted here Wednesday morning.

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The left hand turn lane from eastbound NE 116th St. to northbound 120th Avenue NE in Kirkland just west of Interstate 405 will be unexpectedly closed today, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT).

Crews working early this morning accidentally hit and broke a water service line connected to a nearby business and need to close the turn lane to repair the damage, said Steve Peer, a WSDOT spokesman. The break occurred at about 2:15 a.m.

The turn lane is expected to be reopened by 3 p.m. today. That intersection is congested daily during the morning and evening commute hours, but Peer said the turn lane closure did not appear to be creating a greater bottleneck this (Wednesday) morning.

That stretch of 116th, in the south Totem Lake area, is also the site of a nightly closure of one lane all this week. Here’s a previous story about that closure, which lasts from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. nightly until Friday morning.

The work is part of a major, $17 million reconstruction of the NE 116th/I-405 interchange to increase capacity and improve traffic flow.