Expect delays, detours on this busy Lakewood street later this week
People driving in Lakewood can expect detours later this week.
According to a Facebook post from the city of Lakewood, Gravelly Lake Drive will be closed from 6 a.m. on Saturday, May 30 to 5 a.m. on Monday, June 1.
The closure is part of the Washington State Department of Transportation’s Gravelly Lake Drive-Thorne Lane connection project, which will build a non-motorized path between Tillicum and the rest of Lakewood.
The Gravelly Lake Drive closure will impact southbound lanes between Interstate 5 and Nyanza Road, the post said.
“Drivers heading to the freeway will be detoured to the 112th & Bridgeport intersection to access I-5,” the post said.
In the post, the city said crews will be installing about 21 soldiers piles, which will allow them to “safely finish the remaining improvements off the roadway.”
WSDOT’s website says the right lane of southbound Gravelly Lake Drive approaching Interstate 5 will close at 7 p.m. every night from Monday, June 1 to Friday, June 5, and reopen at 5 a.m. each following day.
What is the Gravelly Lake Drive-Thorne Lane Connection Project?
According to WSDOT’s website, the project will be in the works from the summer of 2025 to the spring of 2027 and costs $31.5 million.
“People who want to walk between Lakewood’s Tillicum neighborhood to other Lakewood communities have no options,” the website said. “While people biking is allowed on this section of I-5, they are restricted beyond Gravelly Lake Drive. The Tillicum neighborhood is landlocked by Joint Base Lewis-McChord, American Lake, Camp Murray and I-5.”
This project will be the solution to that, WSDOT said, by creating a 1.3-mile, shared-use path between the Tillicum neighborhood and other parts of Lakewood. The path will be 14 feet wide and accessible to emergency vehicles to use instead of Interstate 5.
This is one project in a group of improvements planned for the area, WSDOT’s website says. The agency received $495 million from the state legislature in 2015 for the Interstate 5 Mounts Road to Thorne Lane Interchange - Corridor Improvements project, which aims to “widen seven miles of Interstate 5 in Pierce County, from DuPont to Lakewood, adding an HOV lane in each direction.”
WSDOT is in the middle of building a new Steilacoom-DuPont Road interchange, which will feature a shared-use path between the DuPont Gate at Joint Base Lewis McChord and DuPont.
