Traffic Q&A: Wire Thefts Along I-5 a Growing Problem
By Hunter T. George, The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash.
Feb. 11–Question: David Warnick of DuPont wants to know why the lights recently went dark on Interstate 5 in the Tillicum area.
“If they have been hit by the wire thieves, maybe it’s time that the various apparatchiks that pass for law enforcement around here admit that this is not a bunch of tweakers and crack heads; it’s apparently pretty well organized and obviously well-equipped crime,” he wrote in an e-mail Wednesday. “Go get ‘em, somebody.”
Answer: Two days after receiving his note, we got a news release from the state Department of Transportation.
“A darkened intersection at Thorne Lane and I-5 in Lakewood is yet another reminder of the huge problem wire theft has become in the Pierce County area,” the statement said. “Sometime overnight on Wednesday, Feb. 6, thieves cut wire to the signal, endangering the lives of motorists driving through the area.”
DOT officials said thieves struck two other times last week along the I-5 corridor in Pierce County — the off-ramp from eastbound Highway 16 to northbound I-5/38th Street, and the median lighting system along the Gravelly Lake Drive area of I-5.
The state says wire theft is a growing concern:
–Since December 2006, the statewide loss in labor and materials tops $325,000.
–During that time period, the seven-county area that makes up the Olympic Region has tallied 80 incidents totaling more than $191,000.
–Most thefts occurred in the Pierce County area.
–Washington State Patrol troopers say they caught a wire thief in the act Friday after a state traffic camera showed him shimmying up a light pole in Tacoma and cutting wires. That incident, at the Highway 7 extension to northbound I-5 at South 38th Street, was the third in a week along the I-5 corridor in Pierce County.
Money to replace the wire comes from the Transportation Department’s maintenance account, “which is the same budget used to keep mountain passes open and roads clear during one of the most severe winters in recent history,” the agency said in the news release.
Representatives of the Transportation Department and the State Patrol plan to meet Feb. 19 to discuss ways to stop the wire thefts.
The state has set up a toll-free hot line for people to report wire theft: 1-866-976-WIRE.
Got a question about traffic congestion, construction, spending or other transportation issues? Send it to traffic@thenews tribune.com. Include your name, hometown and daytime telephone number. We’ll answer as many as we can. An archive of previous answers is at www.thenews tribune.com/news/traffic/qa.
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