Once considered Pierce County’s ‘missing link,’ Cross-Base Highway largely dead
Plans for a long-promised highway across Joint Base Lewis-McChord have been shelved indefinitely.
The Cross-Base Highway was intended as a crucial west-to-east route across Pierce County, but the Washington State Department of Transportation told The News Tribune this month the project is largely dead.
“There is no funding for a project, and the environmental documentation has expired. It would need to be started again from scratch. JBLM is a secured facility, and they would need to approve any new design,” WSDOT spokesperson Stefanie Rudolph told The News Tribune.
Pierce County updated its project web page in January to say the project was placed on hold “due to funding constraints and changes in project priorities.”
Joint Base Lewis-McChord’s spokesperson Joe Piek referred comments to WSDOT and Pierce County.
For decades, Pierce County, the state of Washington and the federal government prioritized the project. Plans called for a road between Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base that would connect state Route 7 in East Pierce County with Interstate 5.
State Route 704 was to be a five-lane, divided highway with three eastbound lanes and two westbound lanes, according to a WSDOT project summary in 2018. WSDOT officials told The News Tribune in 2008 the project would reduce congestion on state Route 7, state Route 512 and I-5.
Pierce County identified the project as a regional link between Frederickson and DuPont, which showed promise to offset the projected congestion from population growth, according to county documents. Initial mentions of the project showed up in the 1992 county transportation plan, county policy analyst Hugh Taylor told The News Tribune.
In 2002, the Washington State Legislature identified the project as having regional significance.
In 2003, the Puget Sound Regional Council’s Metropolitan Transportation Plan called the Cross-Base Highway a “missing link” in the regional transportation system. A county newsletter that year claimed the road would reduce east-west drive time by 42 percent.
In 2004, state lawmakers designated state Route 704 as a “Highway of Statewide Significance” and the Federal Highway Administration endorsed the project through a “record of decision,” which opened up the project to federal grants.
The last published cost estimate in 2008 projected state Route 704 would cost $419.6 million. Work began that year, when WSDOT crews completed a small fragment of the intended projectoff Spanaway Loop Road — .63 of a mile — for $9.5 million.
But further funding proved challenging. In 2008, Pierce County voters rejected a funding measure for the state Route 704 project.
The project became contentious in 2010 when a lawsuit was filed by groups that contended an environmental study ignored that the project would destroy one of the region’s largest remaining tracts of oak-woodland prairie. The lawsuit was temporarily paused due to a lack of funding.
Another $31.5 million was spent on studies and buying rights of way. But there was no money for the rest of the job, and work was suspended, the News Tribune later wrote.
“The four remaining projects were suspended and never funded by the legislature,” Rudolph told The News Tribune this month.
In 2017, the federal government rescinded its endorsement, and an environmental impact statement included concerns that the route passes near the western gray squirrel and other wildlife habitat.
“Since that time, WSDOT has only advanced one of five project stages, but has not advanced further design, right of way acquisition or construction of the other stages since 2007 due to public policy, litigation and transportation demand reasons,” Federal Highway Administration’s Division Washington Division Administrator Daniel Mathis said in his decision letter.
The project is listed in Pierce County’s 2022-2027 Transportation Plan, but as unfunded.
WSDOT has shifted its priorities in the South Sound to Interstate 5, state Routes 7, 161, 167 and 507 in an effort to focus on the whole transportation system rather than one corridor.
There are current studies underway to identify problem areas. This year, the state Legislature allocated $500,000 to study additional connectivity between state Route 162, south of Military Road East and north of Orting, and state Route 161.
“This study is separate from the state Route 704 Cross-Base Highway, although it will look at travel for people in the same geographic area,” Rudolph said. “By looking at connectivity between the corridors, we are looking for ways to improve the movement of people throughout the South Pierce County area.”