Replacing this major Pierce County bridge could cost more than $250 million
Pierce County has ruled out several options for how to fix or replace the aging Fox Island Bridge, promising to provide more information about funding scenarios after engineers finish their study of replacement options this year.
Inspectors found holes in the bridge’s concrete footings and declared the 1950s-era bridge “structurally deficient” in 2013, The News Tribune reported. An initial financial study in 2019 pegged the cost to replace it at $168 million, if the new bridge was built in 2025-2026. The bridge connects Fox Island with the Gig Harbor peninsula across Hale Passage.
At an open house April 8, the second of three, staff estimated that paying for construction and right-of-way alone could reach over $250 million. The earliest that construction could begin is 2030, according to the county’s most recent timeline.
“This is a very large project, and we will need multiple sources to finance it,” Pierce County spokesperson Danielle Winski later told The News Tribune via email on April 11. “These sources will likely include federal, state, county, and resident contributions of some form. Like all County road projects, our goal is to utilize state and federal grant sources as much as possible.”
The county’s open house at Fox Island United Church of Christ updated residents on their ongoing type, size, and location (TS&L) study, which continues to review options for replacing, repairing or providing an alternative to the bridge. The study is expected to wrap up in late 2025 and cost $1.8 million as part of the county’s 2024-2025 biennial budget, The News Tribune reported.
An online open house presenting the same information as the in-person event is live through April 29. The county will host a third open house next year, though Winski wasn’t able to provide The News Tribune with a date or location at this time.
The county is also collecting public feedback through an online survey that is open until April 29. Staff will consider the feedback along with other factors such as cost, permitting requirements, constructability, and impacts to property, traffic and the environment to make a final decision, according to Winski.
Funding scenarios remain fuzzy
“All funding scenarios remain on the table at this point,” Winski wrote to The News Tribune. “Once a preferred alternative is selected after the environmental process, we will have a better picture of our funding needs and can begin to identify specific opportunities.
At this time, the county would likely expect discussions with the public about funding scenarios to begin in 2028 or 2029, she wrote.
The county expects to begin pursuing funding in 2026-2027, acquiring and appraising property in 2028-2029 and starting construction in 2030 or beyond. It’s not clear how long construction would take, but the 2019 financial study estimated the costs to replace the bridge over a 2-year construction period.
Funding scenarios floated in the past include establishing a bridge toll, increasing property taxes for island residents, contributions from the County Road Fund and local, state or federal grants, The News Tribune reported in August. The Pierce County Road Fund draws on various sources including property taxes,and state and federal grants, according to a 2023 evaluation of the program’s sustainability by BERK Consulting.
Asked if federal funding cuts could impact the funding scenarios for the bridge, Winski wrote that the county has “no way to predict the federal funding picture in the future,” but they “anticipate there will be federal opportunities similar to what (they) have seen in the past.”
John Ohlson, 68, attended both the first and second open houses and spoke to The News Tribune via phone on April 10. The Fox Island resident previously served as the president of the Fox Island Community and Recreation Association from 2000-2011. He said he felt the county staff were “pretty transparent” at the meeting.
“That was probably easily the largest turnout of any recent Fox Island gathering,” he told The News Tribune, describing how the audience filled the entire church sanctuary and cars were parked up to a block away after the parking lot filled.
He added that some at the meeting were frustrated with the lack of information available about funding for the bridge, and remain worried about how much they’ll be expected to pay.
“I share the frustration that the county seems to think that this is all of a sudden a project that we have to put the cost on the homeowners and not on the entire county,” he said. “We kind of feel like we’re trapped because it’s our only way on and off the island, so we don’t have a choice.”
Ohlson said he crosses the bridge about eight times a week for doctor’s appointments, grocery store trips and other needs. The island’s main commercial facilities are a post office and Zog’s, a local business, that serves as a gas station, grocery store, deli, pub and community lounge space.
Which bridge replacement options have been eliminated?
According to the online open house, the county’s type, size, and location (TS&L) study has narrowed down the options to either replace the bridge entirely (with several options for length and position) or defer bridge replacement for the next 20 years.
The options that were considered non-feasible included:
- rehabilitating and retrofitting the bridge
- floating bridges
- tunnels
- ferry services
The county reviewed the options based on a series of criteria. These included the expected cost in 2024 dollars; number of properties that would be affected; ability to accommodate emergency services, bikes and pedestrians; the ability to withstand seismic activity and rising sea levels; impacts to traffic during construction and other factors, according to an informational booklet the county published.
What bridge replacement options are still on the table?
The county has decided to study the following options in greater depth, according to the online open house. All dollar amounts are in 2024 dollars.
Replacing the bridge with a new 2,000-foot bridge, either to the west or the east of the existing bridge:
- Cost to build and purchase right-of-way: $209-217 million
- Cost to maintain, repair and inspect over 75-year lifespan: $30-38 million
- Number of properties impacted: 5-10
- Potential impacts to boat launch
- Moderate traffic impacts during construction
- Moderate environmental impacts
Replacing the bridge with a new 3,000-foot bridge:
- Cost to build and purchase right-of-way: $245-257 million
- Cost to maintain, repair and inspect over 75-year lifespan: $45-56 million
- Number of properties impacted: 5-10
- No impact to boat launch; opportunity for enhanced boat launch parking
- Minimal traffic impacts during construction
- Moderate environmental impacts
Both replacement options would accommodate bikes and pedestrians, address sea level rise and provide similar clearances for boats as the existing bridge.
A third option the county is considering, and carrying forward as a “baseline option,” is to defer the bridge replacement for another 20 years and then build a 2,000-foot replacement. That option comes out to a projected cost of $257-275 million, factoring in the increased cost of repair, maintenance and inspections for years 0-20. During those 20 years, the bridge will be “seismically vulnerable,” and at the end of that period “repairs and maintenance will likely no longer be feasible to keep the bridge in service,” according to the county’s informational booklet.
This story was originally published April 16, 2025 at 12:39 PM.
