Heading in, out of Tacoma this Fourth of July weekend? Here are your ideal travel times

With warm weather still abundant after Western Washington’s recent heat wave, some typical holiday traffic is to be expected this Fourth of July weekend.

According to the Washington State Department of Transportation, I-90 in particular is expected to have lengthy delays. Longer waits also can be expected at ferry docks this weekend.

WSDOT identified I-5 Lacey to Tacoma, I-90 North Bend to Cle Elum and U.S. 2 Skykomish to Stevens Pass as “Peak 4th of July Weekend Routes.”

Traffic analysts for WSDOT looked at traffic on those routes during past Fourth of July weekends and used that data to make predictions on traffic patterns for 2021. The graphs are color-coded, with green being the lightest predicted traffic, yellow being moderate to heavy traffic, and red being congested traffic. The black line running horizontally shows users how the predicted Fourth of July traffic compares to the average weekend.

I-5 Lacey to Tacoma

I-90 North Bend to Cle Elum

US 2 Skykomish to Stevens Pass

This story was originally published July 2, 2021 at 5:00 AM.