Washington’s first secretary of transportation ushered state through freeways, catastrophes

William A. Bulley, who served as Washington’s last highways department director and the first Secretary of the Department of Transportation, has died. He was 92.

His death from pulmonary fibrosis on Jan.19 followed that of his wife, Sigrid, on Dec. 6. She was also 92.

Bulley served as director for the highways department from 1975 until 1977 when it was merged with the ferry department and made into the Department of Transportation by the Legislature. He served as secretary until 1981.

During his tenure he oversaw the construction of Interstate 90, repair of the sunken Hood Canal Bridge and the rebuilding of transportation infrastructure destroyed by the volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980.

Bulley was born in Spokane in 1925.

While still in high school he worked summers for the highway system, building roads around the state, said his son, Bill Bulley Jr. He also won the Washington State tennis doubles championship while in high school, said another son, Kevin Bulley.

Bulley served with the U.S. Army’s 103rd Infantry and saw combat in France, Germany, and Austria and fought in the Battle of the Bulge.

He met Sigrid while they were both students at the University of Washington. He got a degree in civil engineering, and she obtained a degree in political science.

Shortly after graduation, Bulley went to work with the Washington State Department of Highways as an engineer.

Among his work from the 1950s that still stands today is Interstate 5’s Ship Canal Bridge. He also supervised the construction of I-5 through downtown Seattle. He was not responsible for the number of lanes the notoriously narrow freeway has, according to Kevin Bulley.

Bulley ran the department during the construction of I-90 in the 1970s.

“There was a lot of controversy about that, getting the freeway across Mercer Island and through the Mount Baker neighborhood,” Kevin said. “I remember he said you can only do this job for so long because eventually you made enough people mad you couldn’t do it anymore.”

When I-5 was first designed another freeway, the R. H. Thomson Expressway, was planned. It would take traffic up the Rainier Valley and along the route of today’s Martin Luther King Jr. Way. Seattle’s famous and recently demolished “Ramps to Nowhere” in Washington Park Arboretum were remnants of the project that was abandoned in 1971.

“That project was terminated for environmental considerations, and he was OK with that,” Kevin Bulley said. “He tried to be sensitive to the environmental concerns and the local needs and always strike that balance.”

The Bulleys raised their two sons in Vancouver and Olympia. Education was important in the Bulley household, Kevin Bulley said.

“It was definitely emphasized,” he said. “Expectations were high.” Both sons became physicians.

Later in life the couple moved to East Pierce County to be closer to their sons and five grandchildren.

The family held private services for the couple.

This story was originally published January 31, 2018 at 4:39 PM with the headline "Washington’s first secretary of transportation ushered state through freeways, catastrophes."