WSDOT News

Date:  Friday, February 10, 2006

Contact: John Chi, Project Engineer, (206) 768-9002 (Seattle)
Laura Johnson, WSDOT Communications, (206) 254-7625 (Seattle)
Lee Somerstein, Sound Transit Media Relations, (206) 689-4946 (Seattle)

SEATTLE – At 2 p.m. Friday afternoon WSDOT and Sound Transit opened new on- and off-ramps for carpools, vanpools and buses on Interstate 5 in Federal Way.
 
Crews also opened a one-mile extension of the northbound high occupancy vehicle lane between S. 320th Street and Military Road.  This increases the number of northbound I-5 lanes from four to five.  The new HOV lane and ramps will help ease congestion and reduce the risk of collisions by eliminating the need for HOVs to merge across three lanes of traffic to enter and exit the freeway.  The new ramps in the median connect to S. 317th Street and Sound Transit’s new Federal Way Transit Center by way of a new bridge over southbound I-5.
 
Crews began construction on the I-5 – S. 317th HOV Direct Access Project in June 2004. WSDOT also improved existing pavement in both directions of I-5 in the project area.  This pavement has been in place since the freeway was built in the 1960s and was badly in need of repair. The economical rehabilitation technique used will extend the life of the pavement another ten to fifteen years.
 
Dry weather this past week allowed crews to re-stripe a mile of I-5 in both directions, work which had to be completed prior to opening the new interchange.  An unusually large amount of rain in December and January slowed progress on the project, but crews raced to open the ramps in time for this weekend’s bus service change. Buses will begin serving the new transit center Saturday morning.
 
“Mother Nature gave us all we could handle, said WSDOT Project Engineer John Chi, “But our contractor Icon Materials and all our work crews really stepped up to get the ramps open the day before buses are scheduled to start using them.”
 
The transit center, fully funded and built by Sound Transit, includes a 1200-stall, five-story parking garage and will be served by over 700 buses daily from Sound Transit, King County Metro Transit and Pierce Transit.  It is south King County’s largest transit facility and will serve as the major transfer point between Seattle and Tacoma.
 
"This project is about bringing congestion relief to south King County," said King County Vice-Chair and Sound Transit Board Member Pete von Reichbauer. "It doesn't matter if you're in a car or bus; this Sound Transit and WSDOT project should allow freeway traffic to move more smoothly by eliminating the bus and carpool 'weave' to exit from the HOV lane.   An added benefit is a new convenient access point to the greater Federal Way/Auburn community."
 
In this project, crews also widened southbound I-5 to accommodate an HOV lane along with the four general-purpose lanes. However, traffic engineers determined that opening a southbound HOV lane now between Military Road and S. 320th Street would create a serious bottleneck at S. 320th.  WSDOT will not open this lane until next year, when crews complete HOV lane construction between S. 320th and the Pierce County line. 
 
Although the ramps and bridge are open, the project is not yet complete.  Crews will widen the northbound on-ramp from westbound S. 320th, adding an HOV bypass lane. Much miscellaneous work also remains to be done throughout the project area, including additional striping, electrical work, guardrail installation, and barrier adjustment.
 
WSDOT teamed up with Sound Transit on the I-5 – S. 317th Street HOV Direct Access Project.  For more information visit www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/I5/S317th_DirectAccess. There you can also sign up to receive weekly e-mail updates on this and other WSDOT projects in south King County.
 
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