4 years of I-5 construction comes to a close in Tacoma, now for the next part
Nov 15, 2018, 8:25 AM
(File, MyNorthwest)
(File, MyNorthwest)
We should reach a major milestone on the HOV project through Tacoma on Friday. The northbound HOV project construction that started more than four years ago should be finished.
In this project, contractors tore-down and then rebuilt two freeway overpass bridges at Pacific and McKinley Way. If the weather holds over the next 24 hours, the McKinley Way overpass should open tomorrow. The state also built a new bridge over the Puyallup River and widened the entire freeway.
“There were three bridge projects in this one particular HOV project, in a very small area, and we had to keep the traffic moving 24/7,” Washington Department of Transportation spokesperson Cara Mitchell said.
Mitchell knows this has been a giant headache for I-5 drivers, especially with all the off-and-on lane closures and lane transitions, and she has a blanket “thank you” for all of your patience.
“It is a sense of accomplishment,” she said. “We know it has tested a lot of the patience of drivers, and we really appreciate their patience working with us.”
But this is not the end of the construction on I-5 in the Tacoma-area. The project will take about three months off before starting on the final piece of the puzzle, which is building the new Puyallup River Bridge in the southbound direction of I-5. That project will begin early next year and last about two-and-a-half years. When that is finished, the nearly 20 years of I-5 construction through downtown Tacoma should finally come to an end.
As for when you will be able to use the HOV lanes that connect I-5 and Highway 16, you should expect that by March. That should help alleviate a lot of the weaving that causes unnecessary congestion in downtown Tacoma.
