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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 southbound 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 End Result
In addition to a new southbound bridge and HOV lane over the Puyallup River, this project will make numerous improvements to southbound I-5. Those improvements include:
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.
Financial Data for PIN 300509S | ||||||||||||
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Please note: The engineer's estimate for construction falls in the range from $150 to $175M. Remaining costs cover preliminary engineering, agreements, right-of-way, and construction oversight.
Thomas Slimak
Construction Project Engineer
(253) 365-6700
Cara Mitchell
WSDOT Olympic Region Media Relations
(360) 357-2703