Here’s how your commute may change as the Route 167 project takes shape
The tolled expressway under construction that will link Interstate 5 with the Port of Tacoma in 2026 is impacting drivers — and fish — as it begins to take shape across its route. Motorists on I-5, state Route 99 and various side streets along the 2-mile-long route will be experiencing more changes to their driving routines and scenery.
The work is part of the state Department of Transportation’s Route 167 Completion Project, which is taking shape from the Fife Curve on Interstate 5 to state Route 509.
The $376 million project will eventually connect with the current end of SR 167 at North Meridian Avenue as part of WSDOT’s $2.38 billion Puget Sound Gateway Program.
The large project has many moving parts. Here’s an update on major components.
Interstate 5 bridge
Since February, drivers have been making a swerve — with the guidance of orange and white lane markings — around new bridges being built over Hylebos Creek just north of the Fife curve.
Now that the inner portions of the bridges are complete, that swerve at the curve will be smoothed out as traffic is diverted on to the new bridges. In December, crews will begin building the outer portions.
All five lanes will be traveling in each direction. So why the extra-wide bridges? It’s for ramps, according to project engineer Tom Slimak. Ramps to and from the expressway will eventually merge and diverge in the area of the bridges.
The orange and white stripes will go away as will the 50 miles per hour speed limit. While the limit will be 60, WSDOT still advises 50 miles per hour through the construction zone.
The bridges should be completely finished in summer 2024 with the creek flowing below them.
State Route 99 gets a shoofly
I-5 isn’t the only major route crossing over the Hylebos. SR 99 also travels over the creek and it, too, is getting new bridges.
On Tuesday, Nov. 21, northbound SR 99 drivers headed northeast from the traffic circle at Wapato Way East will be traveling on what WSDOT is calling a shoofly. The increasingly popular term in the road construction world refers to a temporary roadway used to direct traffic around an active construction zone.
The two-lane shoofly will rejoin SR 99 near 70th Avenue East. It’s expected to be in place through September while construction crews build the bridges, install sidewalks and complete utility work.
“It’s pretty action-packed,” Slimak said of the upcoming construction season.
A new 12th Street
So many changes have come to 12th Street East that it’s hardly recognizable. At ground level are two new bridges over Hylebos Creek. Down below, the creek’s path has been rerouted. And at neck-craning level, girders that will carry traffic on the new SR 167 were installed Saturday over 12th Street East.
The bridges and overpass construction are accompanied by new sidewalks along 12th Street East.
Since construction began on the project in July 2022, WSDOT contractors have brought in 500,000 cubic yards of soil for the raised expressway — about half of what is needed, Slimak said.
Hylebos Creek
Hylebos Creek has got its groove back.
The creek that flows from Federal Way to Commencement Bay is once again curving around islands and carefully placed logs. The stream’s meanderings were taken out decades ago when waterways were seen as a nuisance or a dumping ground. Dozens of logs are now in both the stream and along its banks.
Crews excavated a new and improved Hylebos stream channel between 8th Street East and SR 99 — a total of 3,000 feet, according to Slimak. It’s all part of a riparian restoration of the creek.
The stream even contains newly made islands, the kind one would see in a natural creek. It also has two levels. The lowest contains the creek in its normally running state. A wider and higher stream bed spreads out on either side to contain high water during flooding events.
“It’s a place where if (the creek) gets charged up after a storm event, we’ve got capacity, where that water can then properly overtop the banks, and stay in a controlled environment,” Slimak said.
During the construction, juvenile Chinook salmon were “defished” from the stream, WSDOT said. They were safely removed and then later returned to the stream above and below where the riparian habitat was being restored.
The greening of Hylebos
Next up are the planting of 75,000 trees, shrubs and grasses throughout the new lower creek corridor.
“It’s going to be an army of landscapers that are going to be planting this,” Slimak said. “Everything that we built in this lower reach. Now they need to come in and plant this winter and plant like the wind.”
Plants will include Oregon ash, huckleberry, Oregon grape, elderberry and many other species, he said.
When all of the 150 acres of the project are planted, including a portion on the east side of I-5, some 400,000 plants will have been installed, WSDOT said.
Downstream from the new channel, the Hylebos goes through Fife’s Hylebos Nature Area and the Port of Tacoma’s Place of Circling Waters before joining with Wapato Creek and emptying into Hylebos Waterway.
This story was originally published November 14, 2023 at 12:27 PM.
