Traffic Payout

By guest blogger Claudia Bingham Baker

On budget and ahead of schedule – those words describe our  I-5: 48th Street to M Street Concrete Rehabilitation project.

Crews pour fast-curing concrete into an excavated 12’x15’ space to replace a broken concrete panel. All work was done at night to minimize traffic impacts.

Since mid-July, crews have been busy removing and replacing 76 concrete roadway panels on northbound and southbound Interstate 5 in Tacoma. The 76 panels were cracked and broken from 50 years of daily pounding by cars and trucks. Despite the best efforts of maintenance crews to keep concrete panels intact, these panels needed a fresh start.  Crews used upwards of 38 concrete-truck-loads of fast-curing concrete to replace the 12’x15’ panels over the last few months to get the job done. Didn’t see the work happening, you say?  That’s not surprising because all of it occurred at night to minimize impacts to the traveling public. Crews also ground over five miles of I-5 in addition to replacing the concrete panels, which extends the life of the concrete and provides drivers a smoother ride. 

You may be wondering about all the other concrete panels out there that didn’t get this fresh start.  Their turn is coming, when two more projects rehabilitate I-5 in a big way. The first project will rehab I-5 and build HOV lanes between M Street and Portland Avenue, and the second project will realign and rebuild I-5 through the SR 16 interchange and build an HOV bridge and ramps through Nalley Valley.