Route 16 exit in Tacoma will be partially closed Monday for repairs

HOV commuters on Interstate 5 trying to get to State Route 16 Tacoma will have to rethink their exit strategy on Monday, as road maintenance will cut off the usual pathway for a few hours.

From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Aug. 4, the HOV lane on northbound I-5 will be cut off from the normal HOV-only exit to Route 16 toward Gig Harbor. Drivers will instead have to scoot into the boring old regular lanes earlier in their journey to take Exit 132, which connects to Route 16 westbound.

Washington State Department of Transportation crews are repairing and replacing “crash cushions” along the roadway, the agency announced in a travel advisory last week. The improvements are necessary “to maintain and preserve a vital transportation corridor in Tacoma.”

Also known as impact attenuator systems, crash cushions protect people in the event of an accident from more severe injury by absorbing kinetic energy, as well as highway infrastructure from the ramifications of a multi-ton vehicle colliding off-course.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/route-16-exit-tacoma-partially-121500369.html