By Bud McKay
Joint Base Lewis-McChord Garrison Public Affairs
JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. -- About 70 people attended the Washington State Department of Transportation's open house Thursday evening at Tillicum Elementary School in Lakewood to go over the details of the Interstate 5 widening project with rebuilt Berkeley and Thorne Lane interchanges.
The $495 million I-5 project runs along Joint Base Lewis-McChord and is scheduled to be complete in 2025.
"A lot of people are interested in the closures that will occur, but most people are just excited to get the second stage of the project started," said Cara Mitchell, a spokeswoman with WSDOT. "Of course, most of the closures will take place at night or over the weekends. Our weather has a lot of impact on our schedules, but we will communicate as much as we can when closures are pending."
A couple of those closures happen this weekend. The northbound on- and off-ramps for Berkeley near Madigan Army Medical Center will be closed Saturday from 11:30 p.m. to Sunday at 8:30 a.m. Also, the two right lanes of 41st to north of Berkeley will be closed from Saturday at 9:30 p.m. to Sunday to 8:30 a.m.
Twelve representatives from WSDOT, Amtrak, and Guy F. Atkinson Construction LLC, the company awarded the contract, were on hand at the open house to make presentations and to answer questions.
"People should see us digging dirt on Berkeley very soon," said Jim Zusy, project manager for Atkinson. "It's a design-build project, so as soon as the plans are done and approved, we're out the door ready to go."
This is the second of four projects in the area and is intended to help relieve congestion and improve safety by reducing collisions. The first stage was adding an auxiliary lane between Mounts Road and Center Drive.
The second stage, which will be done in 2021, will increase freeway capacity by adding a lane in both directions from just north of Steilacoom-DuPont Road (exit 119 by the DuPont Gate on JBLM) to Thorne Lane in Lakewood (exit 123 near the Logistics Center Gate on JBLM).
Auxiliary lanes will also be added between Berkeley Street (exit 123 near the Madigan Gate) and Gravelly Lake Drive (exit 124 located between the McChord Field Housing and the Logistics Center gates). New interchanges at Thorne Lane and Berkeley Street will be constructed over the existing high-speed rail line, which eliminates potential conflicts with trains. The new overpasses will be built adjacent to the existing structures, which minimizes closures during construction.
Other impacts throughout the duration of the project include:
• night lane closures,
• narrowed lanes on I-5,
• some minor night impacts to city streets,
• partial night ramp closures and some total night closures of mainline I-5 during bridge demolition and girder placement,
• weekend closures and one extended closure of Berkeley ramps to construct new overpass and Berkeley on-ramp to northbound I-5,
• one weekend closure of the Madigan Gate,
• extended closure of Union Avenue at Thorne to raise profile of Union Avenue to meet height of new overpass.
For more information about the project, visit http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/I5/steilacoomdupontrdtothornelnimprove/default.htm
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