Date:  Monday, March 17, 2008

Contact: Jamie Swift, WSDOT Communications, (360) 507-4261

Transportation secretary, 140 students cut ribbon on I-5 construction

TACOMA – Doubling the width of Pierce County’s busiest section of highway came loaded with challenges for the hundreds of workers whose ingenuity, skill, sweat and tears made it happen.

Those challenges weren’t exclusive to the workers, as drivers, local residents, businesses, schools and churches adjusted to the detours and the din of a two-and-a-half-year construction project stretching from the Tacoma Mall to the Tacoma Dome.

“We want to give the neighborhoods and community groups a lot of thanks for their support and patience throughout this project,” said Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond, who served as the master of ceremonies at a ribbon-cutting event today on Delin Street next to Holy Rosary Church.

The event celebrated the on-time, on-budget accomplishments of the work crews and the safety and mobility benefits produced by the freeway improvements. At the same time, WSDOT recognized its partners and the local people whose daily lives were affected by the $72.9 million I-5, 48th Street to Pacific Avenue project.

While the project continues into the spring, the opening of the new Delin Street overpass presents a fitting opportunity to cut a ribbon and involve the local community in the event. Speakers included Secretary Hammond, WSDOT Olympic Region Administrator Kevin Dayton and Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma.

Also as part of the program, Holy Rosary’s Church’s Father Robert Goebel, S.J., offered a blessing, and more than 100 students from Holy Rosary School cut a ribbon before walking as a group across the new bridge.

“It’s fitting that we are surrounded by Holy Rosary students for this ribbon-cutting. The community shared in the challenges and they should share in the success,” Secretary Hammond added.

For more information about the 48th Street to Pacific Avenue project, or other projects that are part of the Tacoma/Pierce County HOV Program, visit http://www.tacomatraffic.com/.

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