Pierce County has taken another step toward opening two and a half miles of Puget Sound beach that has been closed to the public for a century.

The county has begun construction of a pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks at its Chambers Creek Properties in University Place. When it’s finished next year, the public will be able to stroll a beach with stunning views of the Sound, several islands and the Olympic Mountains beyond.

Government officials who toured the beach Tuesday afternoon said it would be a gem when opened to the public next September.

“It’s a little piece of heaven, just like those pictures you see in the movies,” said County Executive Pat McCarthy.

The executive led a contingent that included the state’s First Gentleman, Mike Gregoire, as well as other state and local politicians. They toured the site where an overpass will guide pedestrians over the BNSF Railway tracks that cut off the beach from the rest of the Chambers Creek Properties.

The site encompasses 932 acres along the sound. By comparison, Tacoma’s Point Defiance Park is 702 acres.

Much of the county’s property is a former gravel mine that Pierce County has converted into Chambers Bay Golf Course.

But the course – which will host the 2015 U.S. Open and next year’s U.S. Amateur championship – is just one part of the county’s plan for the site.

The property has long housed the county wastewater treatment plant. And in recent years the county has been developing recreational opportunities.

In 2007 the county dedicated the 2-mile Soundview Trail, which winds through the golf course. Last year it opened the 22-acre Central Meadow park and the 6-acre North Meadow. The property also features a temporary off-leash dog area.

The bridge to the beach is the latest amenity.

The bridge will tie into the Soundview Trail. At 900 feet in length, it will be handicapped accessible, gradually sloping up and over the tracks and onto the rocky beach.

The state is paying most of the $2.4 million cost.

“This is for the entire state,” Gregoire said during Tuesday’s tour. “It happens to be in Pierce County and it’s close to Tacoma.”

County Councilman Terry Lee, R-Gig Harbor, said opening the beach is a rare opportunity.

“We have so many miles of saltwater marine frontage,” Lee said. “So little of it is open to the public.”

Future development at Chambers Creek will include a fishing pier, a boat launch, an environmental education center, an arboretum and permanent off-leash dog facilities.

Most of those projects are in search of funding and have no specific timetable. But county officials expect much of the work to be accomplished in the next decade. Construction on the bridge should be finished before the U.S. Amateur next August. The beach should be open to the public in September.

McCarthy credited a host of local, state and federal officials for the development of Chambers Creek.

“Making a decision that will provide public access to something like this is just phenomenal, and this is just a piece of it,”she said.

David Wickert: 253-274-7341
david.wickert@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/politics