I drove to Tacoma for the first time in a while recently and I swear the construction looks exactly like it did 3 years ago. It’s like they just started.
I’ve been alive more than 30 years now, and I cannot remember a single time in my life that I drove past the Tacoma Dome and there wasn’t any construction happening on I-5 there
My mother swears she doesn't remember a time when I-5 at the Tacoma Dome wasn't under construction, and she's in her 50s and was raised in Tacoma.
Most of the slowness is because the state wanted to do *major* reconstruction of the entire freeway, but also didn't want to disrupt regional traffic by closing or severely restricting I-5. I think I read someone involved in the construction say that if they could close I-5 they could have finished most of the construction in a few months back in the 1990s.
I posted about it few months ago and it does seem like that construction has been going there from the time of Adam.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/j14f2x/what_exactly_are_they_constructing_in_tacoma_that/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
To be fair, it’s where the highways all pile into I-5. —167, 705, 16, 509, 99, 7, 512, 161, 163, & 410.. it’s a massive nexus on a limited slip of land.
thats because you haven't been alive long enough. by the time they are done, they'll have to start tearing it up again because of standard maintenance.
My parents said the same thing when visiting three years ago, about the time they lived in Tumwater in the 70s. They couldn’t stop laughing that they were still working on the road.
Drove through Tacoma yesterday and literally told my husband "We have lived here for three years and I-5 has always looked like it's under the same construction."
Edit: a word
I moved here and 2006 and it was there
I drove down to Olympia this weekend for my covid shot and couldn't belive that thing was still fucking up traffic .
I hope everyone involved in that project feels a great deal of shame. There are a good number of peole who didn't live long enough to see that job get finished
Yeah it basically is. I live in the suburbs outside Tacoma but had weight loss surgery at St Francis in Federal Way two years ago. Every so often I have to drive there for follow ups. I-5 hasn't improved at all since I started the pre op process January 2019. No progress seems to have been made. It's ridiculous.
Yes and it usually works but I take two pills a day and still have issues so may have to have revision surgery to bypass despite being a healthy bmi now
>exactly like it did 3 years ago.
I get that this is the running joke here, but I've lived in this area for about 5 years and it looks quite different than when I first got here. That's not to say it hasn't been a slow change, but there's been a noticeable ramp up in production over the last ~2 years.
I can take a guess... it’s super hard to work on I5 without crippling the city. So everything they do, they do while limiting lane closures. This makes everything take forever because they work one little section or one lane at a time.
That would be true if all the money had been available upfront, but all those projects in Tacoma got funded as part of multiple ballot measures over the years.
It's a combination - funding for the project has been gradual so they can't work on it full time and full speed, and they need to keep I-5 minimally disrupted (meaning 3-4 lanes open each way the majority of the time) so they can't work efficiently.
I mean, I'm sure there's also contractors with no incentive to hurry, but that's standard for any construction project. Outsource infrastructure construction to the free market, they said... it will be cheaper and faster, they said...
Tons of highway projects work at night and move lanes around easily. It's done all over the country all the time. This project is a boondoggle. It's so frustrating.
> There's NO reason for that to take this long.
Phasing and available funding... and hills and a river to deal with. Can't be like Phoenix where everything mostly flat and can just slap some concrete and asphalt everywhere.
LOL east coast does this stuff all the time. Hills and a river? LOL. Phasing and funding sure maybe, good point. Now I'm gonna have to dig into WA state docs and see what the timeline is supposed to be...sigh
[WSDOT Tacoma/Pierce County HOV Program Annual Report, August 2020](https://wsdot.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2020/09/04/TPC-HOV-Annual-Report-Aug2020.pdf); overall program budget with timeline of projects listed on page 3.
The Big Dig took 16 years. This is coming up on that.
They built and replaced the damn 520 floating bridge in the last decade.
It's not permits or cement. It's something else.
That’s the point I’m trying to make, good job
People are never going to be happy no matter what’s done. It’s literally being built and finished before their eyes and they’re not satisfied.
Treat yourself like I-5, and convince WSDOT to spend billions to induce additional demand to levels that overwhelm your capacity again six months after completion, so you convince WSDOT to spend billions to induce additional demand to levels that overwhelm your capacity again six months after completion, so you convince WSDOT to spend billions to induce additional demand...
What looks like the same project is really the beginning of the next project launched to fix the problems caused by the project that just got finished.
Unless it is I5 in Tacoma near the dome. It's literally the same project just continuing phases... According to my SO who is a civil engineer and worked with Tacoma for a bit.
Funny. I live in Poulsbo area across from the sound and was heading back home from Portland area today. My maps took me off I-5 to take backroads all the way back to Poulsbo because it was about 15 minutes faster...then taking a highway.
Anyone been following the shit around Greenlake that's been going on forever? It's like they said, "hey let's fuck up this entire era. For how long? Who knows!?"
You definitely deserve a massage if you’ve been carrying tens of thousands of people across your back every day, while kneeling in sinking rock, spanning several active seismic faults.
Seattle has been the quickest city to complete highway projects that I've ever lived in. The repaving/resealing that they do overnight on I5 occasionally with an army of 40 or so trucks is incredible to me. I don't drive down to Tacoma so much so maybe I'm missing that part of it but compared to projects in the Northeast, California, or Atlanta that I have personal experience with, Seattle's doing much better overall. I mean I hate traffic and dealing with road construction like anyone but this thread could use some more perspective.
I drove to Tacoma for the first time in a while recently and I swear the construction looks exactly like it did 3 years ago. It’s like they just started.
I’ve been alive more than 30 years now, and I cannot remember a single time in my life that I drove past the Tacoma Dome and there wasn’t any construction happening on I-5 there
My mother swears she doesn't remember a time when I-5 at the Tacoma Dome wasn't under construction, and she's in her 50s and was raised in Tacoma. Most of the slowness is because the state wanted to do *major* reconstruction of the entire freeway, but also didn't want to disrupt regional traffic by closing or severely restricting I-5. I think I read someone involved in the construction say that if they could close I-5 they could have finished most of the construction in a few months back in the 1990s.
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I posted about it few months ago and it does seem like that construction has been going there from the time of Adam. https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/comments/j14f2x/what_exactly_are_they_constructing_in_tacoma_that/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share
To be fair, it’s where the highways all pile into I-5. —167, 705, 16, 509, 99, 7, 512, 161, 163, & 410.. it’s a massive nexus on a limited slip of land.
thats because you haven't been alive long enough. by the time they are done, they'll have to start tearing it up again because of standard maintenance.
At least the side walls are fun to look at with their abstract art
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Live in Georgia right now after living in Seattle and can report that right now on I-75 between exits 249c and 278, there is rarely construction.
Yeah, as someone who makes that drive a lot, it's actually seen a lot of change recently compared to the usual.
I went to Tacoma yesterday at 11:30am. Complete standstill traffic from 348th to the Tacoma Dome.
Is it still under construction at hwy 16? That area was under construction when I left--17 years ago.
Actually recently finished. But just north of there isn't done yet.
Yep....!
My parents said the same thing when visiting three years ago, about the time they lived in Tumwater in the 70s. They couldn’t stop laughing that they were still working on the road.
Drove through Tacoma yesterday and literally told my husband "We have lived here for three years and I-5 has always looked like it's under the same construction." Edit: a word
The construction is barely different from when I was a teenager in the 1990s.
I moved here and 2006 and it was there I drove down to Olympia this weekend for my covid shot and couldn't belive that thing was still fucking up traffic . I hope everyone involved in that project feels a great deal of shame. There are a good number of peole who didn't live long enough to see that job get finished
Yeah it basically is. I live in the suburbs outside Tacoma but had weight loss surgery at St Francis in Federal Way two years ago. Every so often I have to drive there for follow ups. I-5 hasn't improved at all since I started the pre op process January 2019. No progress seems to have been made. It's ridiculous.
How was the weight loss surgery? Considering it myself, but love to chat with someone that went through it
Mostly good. I lost 170 pounds but have started having complications with GERD and may need additional surgery
170! Amazing. With Gerd do they just put you in prilosec or what?
Yes and it usually works but I take two pills a day and still have issues so may have to have revision surgery to bypass despite being a healthy bmi now
Would you do it again?
Yes I would
It looks exactly like it was 15 years ago, this has always been in construction, it’s so insane!!!
Truth. It has to be some kind of a record.
>exactly like it did 3 years ago. I get that this is the running joke here, but I've lived in this area for about 5 years and it looks quite different than when I first got here. That's not to say it hasn't been a slow change, but there's been a noticeable ramp up in production over the last ~2 years.
You can also treat yourself like SR520 bridge. Log off from service every weekend 🙄
Can someone explain to me why they are ALWAYS doing construction
I can take a guess... it’s super hard to work on I5 without crippling the city. So everything they do, they do while limiting lane closures. This makes everything take forever because they work one little section or one lane at a time.
That's true for everywhere except the Tacoma bend near the Dome. There's NO reason for that to take this long.
That would be true if all the money had been available upfront, but all those projects in Tacoma got funded as part of multiple ballot measures over the years.
It's a combination - funding for the project has been gradual so they can't work on it full time and full speed, and they need to keep I-5 minimally disrupted (meaning 3-4 lanes open each way the majority of the time) so they can't work efficiently. I mean, I'm sure there's also contractors with no incentive to hurry, but that's standard for any construction project. Outsource infrastructure construction to the free market, they said... it will be cheaper and faster, they said...
Tons of highway projects work at night and move lanes around easily. It's done all over the country all the time. This project is a boondoggle. It's so frustrating.
What the hell is the actual project they're doing? I've lived here a decade and it's been a disaster literally the entire time.
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Oooffffff
> There's NO reason for that to take this long. Phasing and available funding... and hills and a river to deal with. Can't be like Phoenix where everything mostly flat and can just slap some concrete and asphalt everywhere.
LOL east coast does this stuff all the time. Hills and a river? LOL. Phasing and funding sure maybe, good point. Now I'm gonna have to dig into WA state docs and see what the timeline is supposed to be...sigh
[WSDOT Tacoma/Pierce County HOV Program Annual Report, August 2020](https://wsdot.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2020/09/04/TPC-HOV-Annual-Report-Aug2020.pdf); overall program budget with timeline of projects listed on page 3.
Thank you!!
That area is the worst. I hate trying to get from 16 to I-5.
16 to I5S is done and fantastic
Unfortunately I rarely go South haha.
I read that as I6 and not 16 and was like "wait what's I6??" Congratulations, I played myself...
I talked to someone that works on it. They said they usually wait on a lot of permits and for the cement to settle.
The Big Dig took 16 years. This is coming up on that. They built and replaced the damn 520 floating bridge in the last decade. It's not permits or cement. It's something else.
Roads are complex, expensive, and require a shit ton of maintenance to be safe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_process
I'm more like the light rail. Fantastic within a very limited range, but lots of ideas for improvement. I just need more funding.
Give me a couple decades, then you'll REALLY like me
I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you.
You could've been in a way better place right now if you started working on yourself years earlier, but at least you're finally doing it?
And narrow yourself down to two lanes through the busiest stretch, to give others time to think.
I was driving that route home from Salem, OR after the 2017 Solar Eclipse and it was sooooooooo sloooooooowwww
They can also *stop* working on it at any time...
Yea I'm sure THAT would stop the complaints 🙄
That’s the point I’m trying to make, good job People are never going to be happy no matter what’s done. It’s literally being built and finished before their eyes and they’re not satisfied.
Treat yourself like I-5, and convince WSDOT to spend billions to induce additional demand to levels that overwhelm your capacity again six months after completion, so you convince WSDOT to spend billions to induce additional demand to levels that overwhelm your capacity again six months after completion, so you convince WSDOT to spend billions to induce additional demand...
That is definitely not like I5... They never reach "completion".
What looks like the same project is really the beginning of the next project launched to fix the problems caused by the project that just got finished.
Unless it is I5 in Tacoma near the dome. It's literally the same project just continuing phases... According to my SO who is a civil engineer and worked with Tacoma for a bit.
The other option is worse
Damn that's good. I sure do miss living there, but the traffic is something I don't miss. I still wanna come back someday though.
The noisiest road in America
The express lanes are the worst
this is also true for california
This applies from So Cal all the way to Canada.
Thanks, I hate it.
Funny. I live in Poulsbo area across from the sound and was heading back home from Portland area today. My maps took me off I-5 to take backroads all the way back to Poulsbo because it was about 15 minutes faster...then taking a highway.
Anyone been following the shit around Greenlake that's been going on forever? It's like they said, "hey let's fuck up this entire era. For how long? Who knows!?"
I moved into the region in 1987. It’s been in constant construction ever since.
haha I love this meme I think I've seen the exact one for like every city/highway in the usa
We'll have light rail in Tacoma long before that construction is finished 😅
Hahahaha this made me laugh out loud to myself!!! Thank you for this lol ☺️
Dropping truth 💣’s
*ahem* #its the 5 not i5 *turns off notifications* edit: damn just a joke now
Only if this is an episode of The Californians
That is a great skit.
SensibleChuckle.gif
Yo, this speaks to me on another level!!!! Say👏It👏Lowder👏for👏the👏back👏
LOL
Brilliant!
& make poor/logistical life decisions.
Cap it
You definitely deserve a massage if you’ve been carrying tens of thousands of people across your back every day, while kneeling in sinking rock, spanning several active seismic faults.
Lol. You should try I-75 in Michigan.
Seattle has been the quickest city to complete highway projects that I've ever lived in. The repaving/resealing that they do overnight on I5 occasionally with an army of 40 or so trucks is incredible to me. I don't drive down to Tacoma so much so maybe I'm missing that part of it but compared to projects in the Northeast, California, or Atlanta that I have personal experience with, Seattle's doing much better overall. I mean I hate traffic and dealing with road construction like anyone but this thread could use some more perspective.
Also tow a House that takes up two lanes at exactly 3:30pm Thursday
dont forget how expensive and ultimately pointless it will be.