Date:  Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Contact: Claudia Cornish, WSDOT Communications, 360-709-8173
             Jamie Swift, WSDOT Communications, 360-357-2703

TACOMA – Residents and workers in and around the Nalley Valley are in for a heavy dose of daytime noise starting this week, as crews on the I-5/SR 16 Westbound Nalley Valley project begin driving piles for temporary bridges.

“This is noisy work,” said WSDOT Field Engineer Troy Watts. “We’re doing the pile-driving during the daytime hours so we can minimize night construction noise.”

This work – and the clamor it creates – is scheduled to go on for several weeks. Crews are hammering foundations for bridge piers into the ground. The piers will support temporary eastbound and westbound bridges over the Nalley Valley, allowing traffic to continue moving while the permanent bridges and ramps are under construction.

I-5 lane closures
Also this week, crews surveying utility and drainage structures in Tacoma will close the two left lanes on both northbound and southbound Interstate 5, between South 38th Street and the Puyallup River bridges. Crews will close the lanes at 9 p.m. Thursday, April 30 and Friday, May 1. The lanes are scheduled to reopen to traffic by 5 a.m. each following morning.

The survey data crews collect will be used by engineers designing high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes from M Street to Portland Avenue, and from Portland Avenue to the Port of Tacoma Road. More information on these projects can be found at www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/PierceCountyHOV/I5_MStToPortland/ and
www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/PierceCountyHOV/I5_PortlandToPortNB/.

This work is being done as part of WSDOT’s Tacoma/Pierce County HOV Program, which is a series of projects to build 70 HOV lane miles in Pierce County.
The I-5/SR 16 Westbound Nalley Valley project is a part of the HOV Program. The project eliminates one of Pierce County’s worst bottlenecks, increases safety and creates approximately 200 construction-related jobs.

More information about the program can be found at www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/piercecountyhov/.

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