Noisy drilling underway at waterfront park in Pierce County. Here’s what to know
If you were planning a peaceful visit to Narrows Park on Wednesday, you might want to reconsider.
Crews will be drilling into the soil throughout the day from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., PenMet Parks posted on Facebook earlier this week. The park will remain open and visitors can still access the path to the beach, but the park district advises visitors to stay clear of the active drilling areas. All parks in the district are open from 7 a.m. to dusk, according to the PenMet Parks website.
PenMet Parks Interim Director of Park Services John Adams said in a phone call Tuesday that Pierce County is requiring the drilling to evaluate the area for potential landslide and shoreline erosion hazards. It’s part of the permitting process for planned accessibility improvements at Narrows Park, he explained.
All three drilling locations are north of the concrete pathway at the park, Adams wrote in a follow-up text message. The areas will be marked off, and a staff person will be on-site to help monitor safety.
“The boring equipment is about the size of a truck and so the boring areas will be flagged at approximately 25 feet x 25 feet,” Adams wrote. “The equipment is rather noisy and so we ask that (the) public stay as far away from the work zones as possible.”
Narrows Park is a waterfront park at 1502 Lucille Parkway NW with paved parking, grassy areas, picnic tables, a non-motorized boat launch, telescopes and a gazebo overlook, according to the PenMet Parks website, and features “1,315 feet of sandy-rock beach that face the Tacoma Narrows strait with excellent views of the Tacoma Narrows bridges and city of Tacoma.”
In 2024, the park district identified a need to update the park amenities, which are aging and don’t meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards, the website says. For example, the asphalt path to the beach doesn’t fully extend to the beach, and the park lacks permanent ADA-compliant restroom facilities and picnic shelters and tables.
Design and permitting is ongoing, and the park district is on track for the proposed construction schedule from late spring to summer 2027, though Adams said that could change depending on how the planning and permitting process goes with Pierce County.
The Narrows Park Accessibility Improvement Project is funded with $650,000 from the park district capital budget and $500,000 from a grant from the Washington State Recreation and Conservation Office, for a total of $1.15 million.
