I-5 HOV improvements —
South 48th Street to Pacific Avenue


Project description:

The segment of Interstate 5 between South 48th Street and Pacific Avenue is highly congested because of the proximity to state Route 16 and the Nalley Valley Viaduct. In these areas, traffic is emerging or exiting at a high volume, vehicles changing lanes at a rapid pace, all causing traffic to slow and cause backups.

This project will widen the entire Tacoma I-5 corridor with an additional lane and wider shoulders in each direction from state Route 512 to the Port of Tacoma Road to make room for future high occupancy vehicle lanes.

When the project is complete, there will be a new multi-lane, northbound collector/distributor road, which will include a new northbound exit to Interstate 705 and an improved merging area from Route 16.

Traffic congestion will be improved and the amount of vehicular accidents will be greatly decreased by shifting emerging and exiting traffic onto the new collector/distributor roadway that will run along the existing northbound freeway lanes from South 48th Street to I-705.

The city street bridges on Tacoma Avenue, Yakima Avenue and Delin Street — which span over I-5 — will all be removed and the Yakima and Delin bridges will be reconstructed to modern standards. These new standards will also help decrease traffic congestion.

Environmental protections are being enforced. Retaining walls and noise barriers will be constructed to help minimize property and wetland impacts. Construction measures used include the installation of silt fences, check dams, compost beams and temporary ponds, as well as some permanent measures such as constructing drainage structures, swales and detention ponds that collect and filter highway storm water runoff. Erosion control measures such as composting topsoil, seeding, fertilizing and mulching for slope stabilization will be used.

Address: I-5, South 48th Street to Pacific Avenue (MP 131.17-133.68)

Cost: $72.87 million (award amount)

Type of contract: Hard bid

Start of construction: Summer 2005

Expected completion date: April 2008

Contractor: Kiewit Construction Co.,
4904 Lake Washington Blvd. N.E.,
Renton, WA 98056-0320,
(425) 255-8333

Engineer: Howard Diep, Washington State Department of Transportation

Owner: Washington State Department of Transportation

Project participants:

Appleby Northwest — Apply-A-Line — ATR Construction — Avery Dennison — Axis Crane — Axsys Geomatic Consultants — B&C Trucking — Baywood Construction — Best Parking Lot Cleaning — Brundage-Bone Concrete Pumping — Canadian Forest Products — Cascade Steel Rolling — Chandler Construction — Coalition Construction — DH Development Co. — Direct Seed Sales — DMI Drilling — Donald B. Murphy — Contractors East Jordan Iron Works — Ennis Paint Co. — G.G.D. Construction — GE Lighting — Glacier Northwest — Hancor — Hanson Pipe — Harlow Construction — Hatch Western Co. — Holroyd Co. — Interstate Sales — Jack Johnson Construction — Kleen Environmental Tech. — Linq Industrial Fabrics — Long Painting Co. — Long Services — Matheus — Miles Sand & Gravel — Mirafi — Morrison Gravel — Nor-Pac Enterprises — Northwest Boring Co. — Northwest Linings & Geotextile Products — Nucor Steel — Olympic Trucking — Pelland Enterprises — Peterson Brothers — Pro-Vac Clean Service — Quality Fence Builders — Ralph’s Concrete Pumping — RPM Steel — Salinas Construction — Security Barricade — Sicklesteel Cranes — Simplot Co. — Stan Palmer Construction — Superior Wood Treating — Tacoma Electric Supply — Terra Dynamics — TMT Pathway — Tree Island Industries — Trinity Industries — Tucci & Sons — U.S. Oil & Refining Co. — Valmont — Wagner Development — Williams Form Engineering — Woodworth & Co. —


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