Washington State Patrol troopers pulled over nearly two dozen drivers who were speeding on a stretch of Interstate 5 that has been plagued with crashes over the last few months.
Law enforcement contacted 20 drivers in just 90 minutes on I-5 in Tacoma overnight Wednesday.
Fourteen of those drivers were cited for aggressive driving, according to Trooper Johnna Batiste. Aggressive driving is when a driver has two or more moving violations and/or was traveling 20 mph over the speed limit.
However, Batiste said she worked the area Wednesday during the day and found "pretty good compliance" overall, pulling over just three passenger vehicles for speed.
The speed limit was lowered from 60 mph to 50 mph on Monday in response to eight semi-truck crashes in that work zone since September.
In the northbound lanes, speed was reduced between milepost 130.91 near South 48th Street and milepost 136.19 at Port of Tacoma Road. Speed was reduced in the southbound lanes between milepost 136.67 and milepost 130.91.
This speed reduction is also in part to all two state construction projects happening in the area: the I-5/SR 16 realignment and Portland Avenue to Port of Tacoma Road HOV project. At least a portion of the freeway through the construction areas have been narrowed.
When the realignment project is complete, the state will consider adjusting the speed limit to just the area of the HOV project. Once all construction is complete, the state will likely raise the speed limit back to 60 mph.