Traffic Lab is a Seattle Times project that digs into the region’s transportation issues to explore the policies and politics that determine how we get around and how billions of dollars in public money are spent.

Planning a drive to see Mom this weekend?

Those trips are taking a back seat this weekend to international soccer, as the Washington State Department of Transportation and Sound Transit squeeze in extra work before their construction blackout next month, to accommodate the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup.

Contractors will return to southbound I-405 in Renton this weekend to close the highway and resume building toll lanes, in hopes of a 2027 finish.…