Date:
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Contact:
Steve Fuchs, WSDOT Project Manager, (360) 709-8100
Lisa Murdock, WSDOT Communications, (360) 357-2789
OLYMPIA – State Route 167 is two inches closer to Tacoma.
That’s significant progress when it’s measured in the thickness of the Final Environmental Impact Statement to extend the state highway from Puyallup to Tacoma. The Federal Highway Administration and Washington State Department of Transportation published the document Dec. 1.
The SR 167 Extension project adds six new miles of highway, completing the original plan for a highway from Interstate 405 in Renton to Interstate 5 in Tacoma. With its connection to SR 509 near the Port of Tacoma, the proposed highway would move freight more quickly, safely and economically, and relieve congestion on local streets and other highways by giving travelers a faster, safer option.
History
Planning for the Puyallup Valley section of the highway began more than 30 years ago, but construction stopped in the late 1980s when money ran out. Since then, SR 167 travelers have used River Road along the Puyallup River to reach Tacoma.
Corridor plans restarted in 1990 when the Legislature provided funding for the project. The project has received almost $160 million in local, state and federal money to advance design, buy property for the corridor and complete the environmental analysis.
The 878-page document released Friday completes the project’s environmental analysis. It outlines the footprint of the proposed highway through the Puyallup and Fife valleys and includes plans to avoid or lessen the highway’s potential effects on farmland, wetlands, stormwater management and flood plains. It includes responses to comments and questions heard from community members, organizations and government agencies near the proposed new highway during the seven-year study.
Next steps
The Federal Highway Administration is expected to approve the project’s environmental plan this spring with a Record of Decision, allowing WSDOT to move forward with final design.
The Regional Transportation Investment District board, made up of elected officials from Pierce, King and Snohomish counties, has indicated it will place a segment of the new highway on its list of projects for voters to consider supporting in November 2007. The funding measure, which calls for a combination of sales and motor vehicle excise taxes, would raise an estimated $1.4 billion in Pierce County. A segment of SR 167, tentatively slated to receive $1 billion of that money, is the single largest Pierce County project on the list.
In the meantime, the project team continues to design the highway and buy property to secure the corridor.
More information
Copies of the Final Environmental Impact Statement are available on CD at no cost by contacting Project Manager Steve Fuchs at (360) 709-8100 or fuchss@wsdot.wa.gov. An electronic copy of the document will be available on the project Web site soon at www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/SR167/TacomaToEdgewood. Printed copies of the document will be available for review until Jan. 5 at the Tacoma Public Library’s Main Branch, Pierce County Library System’s Milton and South Hill branches, the Puyallup Public Library and the Washington State Library.
For more information on the SR 167 Extension project, visit www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/SR167/TacomaToEdgewood.
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