Completion of 20-year I-5 Tacoma construction delayed six months

(The Center Square) – The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) announced a six-month delay in completing the final portion of the 20-year-old $1.4 billion I-5 and State Route 16 high occupancy vehicle (HOV) project.

The opening was scheduled to happen by the end of this year, but that has been pushed back until summer 2022.

Delays in getting building materials – pipes and concrete panels – necessary for the final segment over the Puyallup River ended any hope of a 2021 opening, WSDOT spokeswoman Cara Mitchell announced on the “WSDOT Blog” last week.

“Earlier this summer our contractor, Guy F. Atkinson Construction, developed an ambitious but attainable schedule to move lanes of southbound I-5 to the new Puyallup River Bridge,” she wrote. “That would have set the stage for opening HOV lanes from Fife to Tacoma before the end of 2021.”

Unfortunately, “As we’ve seen in other industries, supply chain issues exacerbated by the pandemic are affecting our contractor’s schedule,” Mitchell wrote.

“This issue, compounded by subcontractor availability and weather, has changed the timing of connecting and opening the I-5 HOV lanes from Fife to Tacoma,” she added. “The new schedule now has the HOV lanes open in summer 2022.”

Other factors played a role in delaying final completion of the two decades-old project, including a labor shortage and a fourth quarter moratorium on interrupting freight traffic.

A strike by the Northwest Carpenters Union, representing 28,000 skilled workers, starting in mid-September and ending October 11 with a tentative agreement with the Associated General Contractors of Washington, impacted the project.

The three-year agreement gives a roughly 15.4% increase in wages and expanded parking benefits in the downtown Seattle and Bellevue cores, among other things.

“This affected bridge construction and demolition, as well as retaining wall construction activities,” Mitchell said.

WSDOT lost more than 400 people to Gov. Jay Inslee’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, which went into effect October 18, but the consequences to the project remain unclear.

“We are still assessing the labor challenges related to the COVID pandemic and full impacts are not quite known,” Mitchell said.

The time of year is also presenting construction challenges in the form of Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway’s (BNSF) right to shut down all construction activities on and adjacent to BNSF property during the fourth quarter of each year – October 1 through December 26 – to accommodate BNSF’s peak holiday shipping season.

“To elaborate more on the fourth quarter moratorium, it’s a busy freight season leading up to the holiday,” Mitchell explained. “The moratorium is called ‘The Fourth Quarter Construction Prohibition,’ and it is a condition of the construction and maintenance agreement with BNSF. This agreement is necessary because part of the work area is located within BNSF’s right-of-way.”

This challenge is something WSDOT has faced before.

“Last year when we were trying to set the last of the bridge girders for the new bridge, the timing of this work occurred when this construction prohibition was in place,” Mitchell noted. “We were able to continue with other work activities that did not require us closing the railroad tracks.”

She is cautiously optimistic something similar can happen this year with the last $325 million piece of the overall project.

“Installing the pipe is happening at the same time of year as the fourth quarter moratorium, unfortunately,” Mitchell said. “Installing pipe does not have the same impacts as installing the world’s largest pre-cast concrete girder, so we’re hopeful that we can continue this work through the moratorium with BNSF approval.”

Earlier this year the longest prestressed concrete girder ever made in North America – in excess of 223-feet long, more than 8-feet high and weighing some 240,000 pounds – was placed on the interstate bridge.

Mitchell provided some perspective on the seemingly endless challenges of shifting lanes, construction barriers and detours that drivers have come to know and loathe.

“This particular project, the I-5 Portland Avenue to Port of Tacoma Road – Southbound HOV project, began in 2019,” she said. “It is the last funded HOV project on the I-5 to SR 16 Tacoma/Pierce County HOV Program. The program started 20 years ago. In those 20 years, 14 projects on I-5 and SR-16 were built, all to widen highways to add HOV lanes. In many cases, one project laid the groundwork for the next.”

Still, she understands drivers’ frustrations with what seems to be a never-ending project meant to improve traffic flow through the area.

“To drivers, the ongoing construction on I-5 from South 38th Street to the Port of Tacoma Road feels like it’s one big project that has gone on forever,” Mitchell said.

There is another bit of good new beyond the massive project’s completion date nearing.

“It is coming in under budget,” Mitchell said of the overall I-5 and State Route 16 HOV project.

Total funds available for the project as determined by the Washington State Legislature are $1.6 billion.

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