Why is WSDOT building new I-5 bridges over the Puyallup River along with new HOV lanes?
This project is part of the Tacoma/Pierce County HOV Program, a series of highway projects to provide operational improvements and high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) lanes on Interstate 5 (I-5), State Route 16 (SR 16), and State Route 167 (SR 167).
Through Tacoma, heavy I-5 traffic creates frequent congestion. HOV lanes will help ensure that transit, vanpools and carpools move efficiently through the corridor, especially when traffic is congested in the adjacent general-purpose lanes. This reliability tends to increase ridership in multi-passenger vehicles and thereby helps ease demand in the general-purpose lanes, making the overall highway system work better for everyone.
The most notable work to occur in this project is building a new northbound Puyallup River Bridge that will be straighter and wider than the existing bridge. Both of these features are improvements that will help traffic move smoothly through the area.
The first stage of work was packaged into a separate contract called I-5 -Portland Avenue to Port of Tacoma Road Northbound HOV Stage 1. Construction on Stage 1 is complete.
The End Result
This project widened northbound I-5 from Portland Avenue to the Port of Tacoma Road to provide room for one HOV lane. As part of this project, WSDOT rebuilt the northbound I-5 Puyallup River bridge and the ramp to northbound SR 167, improved the Portland Avenue interchange, and repaved a portion of lanes of northbound I-5 within the project limits.
This project will provide a number of benefits to motorists.
Safety
Seismic Upgrades
Traffic and Operations
Environmental Improvements
Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) Improvements
Information gathered from ITS devices helps WSDOT respond more quickly to highway incidents, which in turn helps reduce traffic delays and blockages caused by incidents.
The Stage 1 portion of this project is complete.
The remainder of the Northbound HOV project timeline follows.
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For more information, please contact:
Cara Mitchell
WSDOT Olympic Region Communications
360-357-2703
Chuck Meade, WSDOT Project Engineer
Phone: 360-412-3420
I-5 crossing the Puyallup River now. View larger image.
This photo is a computer-enhanced image of what I-5 will look like after the new northbound bridge is complete. This is still a temporary configuration for drivers until WSDOT provides a southbound I-5 HOV lane. View larger image.