East Pierce County regional road expansion project to cost up to $300 million
Pierce County estimates that by the end of next year 1.2 miles of Canyon Road will be expanded to five lanes.
Adding capacity will ease the growing traffic congestion between the warehouse and industrial areas of Frederickson and the Port of Tacoma, Pierce County engineer manager Letticia Neal said.
This project is part of a larger plan called the “Canyon Road Regional Connection Project.” The regional project has been estimated to cost between $250 million and $300 million, county spokesperson Anne Radford said.
Canyon Road stretches more than eight miles from Frederickson to Pioneer Way East, where it dead ends.
Currently, drivers peel off Canyon Road to take state Route 512, getting on Meridian or Pacific Avenue, which adds traffic congestion to those roads.
“That’s where we run into problems. You end up with traffic bailing off onto small residential roads. There’s no infrastructure there to handle the volumes, the traffic or the size of a lot of the vehicles that are trying to find cut-throughs,” Neal said.
One section of the project, North of 84th Street East to 72nd Street East, is expected to start construction this summer.
Designs for that section include:
Expanding to five lanes with a two-way left-turn lane.
Adding concrete curbs, gutters and sidewalks
Adding street lighting.
Improving the traffic signal at 72nd Street East.
Adding an enclosed storm-drain system, as well as stormwater treatment and storage facilities
Construction takes land, and Canyon Road is lined with homes and businesses. One of the longest and most difficult parts of this section of the project has been acquiring property.
Land acquisition
The county needs portions of 54 properties to continue with the project.
Pierce County Council voted to start the condemnation process of 15 properties along Canyon Road in April 2020. Owners of those properties did not agree with the county after 180 days of negotiations.
Daniel Adams owns one of those properties. He believes that if construction goes ahead as planned he will lose his business, Canyon Road Guitars. Adams told The News Tribune he first heard of the expansion project in 2017, a year after he bought his property.
The county initially offered him $85,200 for the front 15 feet of land from the street to build a sidewalk, curb and gutters. Adams hired an independent appraiser, who in August 2019 valued that land at $203,500. The county upped its offer to $98,900 in October 2019, but Adams sought mediation.
Adams and the county settled on $130,000 in the summer of 2020. He doesn’t believe that the settlement included a decision on parking.
His business is also home to guitar lessons and repairs. Currently, the front of his property can park about seven cars, Adams said. The project would reduce his space to hold three cars.
“The three parking places would allow me to park, one of my instructors and one of his students, and I couldn’t have any customers,” he said. “It’s going to put the traffic right outside my front door. That’s going to be a bit of a detriment.”
The county said the settlement included any damages to the property. Neal said once a settlement is reached, the county considers all matters regarding the impact to a property closed.
“We don’t negotiate piecemeal for things. That’s not efficient and it’s not a good use of county resources. That was part of the appraisal for Mr. Adams’ property, part of the negotiations and part of the final settlement,” Neal said. “I’m sorry that Mr. Adams doesn’t feel that that was included in the negotiations, but it most certainly was included in the appraisal and in the offer that was made to him.”
The county has spent $4.7 million in land acquisition on this project, Neal said. All, including Adams, have settled with the county apart from three. The county is in the process of condemning those three properties.
Regional project
The project would extend Canyon Road from the intersection at Pioneer Way East in Puyallup to 70th Avenue in Fife. Canyon Road would be expanded to five lanes, and curbs, gutters, sidewalks and street lighting would be added.
“It’s all about connecting our two major manufacturing and industrial centers: Fredrickson and the Port of Tacoma,” Neal said. “This portion of Canyon Road actually experiences the highest daily traffic volumes of any of our unincorporated roads.”
Before the pandemic, the annual average daily number of vehicles that travel Canyon Road included:
▪ 30,000 in the Frederickson area
▪ 56,000 near state Route 512
▪ 16,000 to 22,000 near 72 Street East
The regional project involves the construction of three bridges: the Milroy Bridge across the Puyallup River will be removed and replaced to the southeast; a bridge over the BNSF Railroad on Canyon Road will be added; as will a bridge on 52nd Street East where it crosses Clarks Creek to the east of 66th Avenue East.
The Milroy Bridge connects River Road and Levee Road. The two-lane bridge is infamous for traffic backups. The new bridge will be expanded to four lanes, complete with lighting, pedestrian accessibility and turn lanes.
Canyon Road has been broken into five sections by block.
The most northern section, 72nd Street East to Pioneer Way East, is in preliminary engineering, and a construction date has not yet been determined.
The county has started removing a “significant amount of refuse, including old vehicles, construction materials and equipment” for road expansion and wetland rehabilitation. About 10 acres will be rehabilitated.
Adams’ property is between 84th Street East to 72nd Street East, where construction is expected to begin in December 2022.
A few blocks south of Canyon Road Guitars, work is underway from 99th Street Court East to 84th Street East. Most of the construction is expected to be completed by the end of this month.
The stretch of project 106th Street East to 96th Street East is still under design and will be completed after 2022.
Pierce County is purchasing property and finalizing design plans for the 208th Street East to 200th Street East section. Construction is slated to begin next spring.
