"HOV lanes are designed to maximize the movement of people, rather than individual vehicles," said WSDOT spokeswoman Cara Mitchell.Įarly design funding of what many call carpool lanes came through the state Legislature. A network was first proposed for Tacoma and Pierce County in the mid-1990s, according to Wynands, whose 37-year-long career incorporates the history of HOV in the state. High-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) lanes first arrived on I-5 in the early 1980s in Seattle. "And so we don't overbuild things, but we build things so that you can expand without tearing things down," he said. When it's adding capacity, WSDOT strikes a balance between its resources and anticipated needs 20 years into the future, Wynands said. By mid-2022, five lanes in each direction will carry traffic on the same route.Įven with the reach of Link light rail from Federal Way to Tacoma in 2030 and the eventual linkage of SR 167 and SR 509, will the newly expanded I-5 meet the demands placed on it? In 1963, three lanes in each direction on I-5 carried traffic past the Port of Tacoma road interchange. Today, more than 200,000 vehicles per day travel the same route - a tenfold increase. Gas prices have soared and fallen more often than a roller coaster, and freight systems have been transformed. In the 60 years since, cars got smaller, then bigger again.
#Tacoma traffic driver#
By the time the first section of I-5 opened in Tacoma in 1960, the oldest Baby Boomers were just about to get their driver licenses.Īt first, 21,000 vehicles a day used I-5. It was a road designed when cars had fins and Elvis Presley crooned from radios. A 1961 photograph shows only cuts and soil ramparts where the future SR 16 would be built. Widely spaced vehicles drive on gleaming concrete through the South 56th Street cloverleaf. Photographs from I-5's early days look almost too good to be true. It would also aid commerce - a crucial factor in a port city. The system was intended to improve safety and reduce congestion on city streets and highways.
#Tacoma traffic free#
The plan, dating from the 1940s, was to build a nationwide system of multi-lane roads free of intersections - the modern freeway.
#Tacoma traffic drivers#
With completion less than a year away, will drivers really get a construction-free Tacoma experience in 2022?Ĭonstruction of what would become a nonstop roadway from the Mexican to Canadian borders began shortly after President Dwight Eisenhower's signing of the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956. That work is largely independent of the nearby HOV lane construction. "I've given up completely on that stretch - I take the city center exit and go around," Twitter user Ty J Boo tweeted in September.ĭemolition of the old Puyallup River bridges and roadways should be completed within a year, according to a schedule that WSDOT has coordinated with its contractor, Atkinson Construction. Some drivers have lost faith that the project will ever finish. The $235 million segment runs from the Port of Tacoma Road to Portland Avenue and is focused on southbound HOV lanes. That new set of bridges over the Puyallup River is the last drivers will see of construction in Tacoma, Wynands said. "It's as sure a thing as Death and Taxes," Twitter user Chris Howard tweeted about the construction in September. "There's a generation of drivers who have never known I-5 through Tacoma without construction," said John Wynands, a WSDOT regional director. But the end has been a long time coming, and WSDOT knows that motorists are beyond frustrated. "We now anticipate the new HOV lanes opening in summer 2022, which is still within the original project timeline."Įxcept for the final segment over the Puyallup River, the project is essentially complete. "This was compounded by subcontractor availability and weather," she said. Delays in getting building materials - pipes, concrete panels - ended any hope of a 2021 opening, according to WSDOT spokeswoman Cara Mitchell. Late last week, the state Department of Transportation learned its contractor was going to need six more months to complete the project. Until a few days ago, that opening was supposed to happen by the end of this year - an agreement both parties made last summer. You'll need another half year of fortitude before you can drive Interstate 5 without passing through a construction zone.Īfter 20 years of shifting lanes, construction barriers, detours and overheated drivers, the $1.4 billion I-5 and state Route 16 high occupancy vehicle (HOV) project is now scheduled to open in summer 2022 in its entirety.
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