July 2, 2018

Final girders going up tonight for I-5 overpass in Tacoma

Photo from WSDOT/Flickr [enlarge]

Crews in late fall installed the first nine of 27 girders for the new McKinley overpass.

Max J. Kuney Co. is nearing the end of four years of work to widen about two miles of Interstate 5 in Tacoma for new HOV lanes.

The project has a $160.85 million budget and improves the freeway from South M Street to East Portland Avenue. It includes a new bridge over the Interstate 705 interchange for northbound traffic, and replacement of the Pacific Avenue and East McKinley Way/East D Street overpasses to make room for the wider freeway.

The bridge over the I-705 interchange was finished last summer.

The new Pacific overpass opened in 2016 and the McKinley overpass should be finished this fall. Crews are installing 27 girders for the McKinley overpass and will complete that work tonight into early Tuesday by setting the final four over the northbound I-5 lanes.

The first nine girders for McKinley were installed in late fall over the I-705/state Route 7 exit on the Tacoma Dome side of the freeway. Crews two weeks ago installed another nine girders over the southbound freeway lanes and five over the northbound lanes.

Girders range from 84 feet long over the exit, to 96 feet long over the southbound lanes, to 141 feet long over the northbound lanes. They were made in Tacoma by Concrete Technology Corp.

McKinley improvements will include new drainage and realigned underground utilities. Crews also will pave and stripe, and add new curbs, gutters, sidewalks and ADA ramps.

Most of the project is funded by the 2005 gas tax.

The new HOV lanes won't open until other connecting HOV projects open: a new northbound I-5 bridge over the Puyallup River that Hamilton Construction should finish this fall; HOV connections to state Route 16 that design-build contractor Skanska/WSP expects to finish in early 2019; and a new southbound I-5 bridge over the Puyallup River that WSDOT expects to award a contract for on July 18.

The Kuney-built HOV lanes could be used for construction staging or traffic control related to the upcoming project.

The upcoming project, with a budget of $308.88 million, will build a southbound HOV lane from Portland Avenue to Port of Tacoma Road, and includes demolition of two old bridges over the river and a replacement overpass at East L Street.

Three design-build teams have been shortlisted for that job: Atkinson Construction, Skanska, and Graham American Bridge JV.

Work on the southbound HOV lane and bridge is expected to start in spring 2019 and WSDOT wants to open that new section two years later.

WSDOT has four other HOV projects in Pierce County on its radar that aren't funded: HOV lanes for SR 16 from the Olympic Drive interchange to Purdy; extending HOV lanes on I-5 to the state Route 512 interchange; extending state Route 167 HOV lanes south to Puyallup; and improvements to the I-5/SR 512 interchange.

Timing of those projects is unknown.