Pierce County’s HOV Lane Construction Begins!

I-5 reduced to one lane in Fife for HOV widening project

From WSDOT News:
FIFE – If your Saturday night plans include traveling north on I-5 from Tacoma to Seattle, be ready for backups or, better yet, adjust your plans.

Crews on the I-5 HOV widening project through Fife begin closing lanes at 9 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 22. By 11 p.m., a triple-lane closure will be in place, leaving just the inside lane open to traffic.

There will be workers and equipment on the freeway, so please stay alert and drive cautiously through the work zone. Crews plan to begin reopening lanes by 8 a.m. Sunday, and have all four lanes open to traffic by 10 a.m. Sunday.

The lane closures allow crews to restripe a three-mile stretch of northbound I-5. The revised striping narrows each lane by a foot (from 12 feet to 11 feet) and shifts traffic away from the median to create work space for the widening project.

The I-5 Port of Tacoma Road to King County Line HOV project widens both directions of I-5 from four to five lanes from the Port of Tacoma Road to the King/Pierce county line. The two additional lanes extend the I-5 HOV network south from King County, three miles into Pierce County.

Construction, funded in part by the 2003 gas tax package, also includes more than $35 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

Online project information: www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/PiercecountyHOV/I5_PortTacomatoKing/

Contact: Rumina Suafoa, WSDOT Project Engineer, 253-534-3100
Jamie Swift, WSDOT Communications, 360-507-4261