Exit133 to Close Beginning This Saturday

Beginning at 12:01 a.m. this Saturday, April 28 Exit133 will be closed for three months. The northbound offramp of our namesake is getting an upgrade to match it up with work on SR-16, and is expected to be out of commission through July of this year.

The eastbound Nalley Valley/SR-16 project has been progressing over the last many months, and has finally reached the stage where it needs to be connected to I-5. As a part of that work, the northbound I-5 exit to the Tacoma City Center (Exit 133) will close around the clock for up to three months, while crews demolish the old “temporary” ramp, and replace it with a new “permanent” ramp. Guess it’s all relative… From the WSDOT webpage:

Beginning at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 28, and continuing into July, drivers will use Exit 132 instead of Exit 133 for Tacoma City Center.

Once on Exit 132, drivers headed to downtown will stay in the right lane, bypass the State Route 16 on-ramp and 38th Street and merge onto the northbound collector/distributor lane to Interstate 705 and downtown Tacoma.

There’s even a video to help you visualize the detour. We suggest watching it with your commuter mug of coffee and a radio on in the background to get the full effect.

The good news is that you won’t be going miles out of your way for the exit. The bad news is that we’re guessing you can expect significant slowing due to the construction.

The viaduct project has a 2014 end-date on it, so we’ll be seeing continued work for a while yet, but when it’s completed, the viaducts will create ramp connections that will be used in the creation of HOV direct-access ramps between SR-16 and I-5. That phase is scheduled for completion anywhere between 2020 and 2023.

For more on the project, visit the WSDOT SR 16 – Eastbound Nalley Valley project website

Safe driving!