Sumner’s ‘hidden snarl’ is no more as $17 million road project nears completion
The $17 million road project took four years, but Sumner has largely completed the state Traffic Avenue/Route 410 project to prevent bottleneck.
The overpass to state Route 410, once a two-lane road and a narrow sidewalk, has become a double overpass with four lanes and a separated 14-food pedestrian and bike lane.
The initial overpass was built in 1967, but it was built really well and considered safe, Sumner communications director Carmen Palmer said.
“We built the new overpass in such a way that whenever the old overpass goes away, we can add on to it,” she said.
Before the project, Palmer said a car could be at standstill on Traffic Avenue for 20 minutes.
“You knew that just changed your ability to get out of town probably by up to 20 to 30 minutes,” Palmer said. “It was really backed up with a mile over to the Cannery; it would back up into the industrial area for a few hours, and it would back up to Shaw Road in Puyallup. It was kind of the hidden snarl.”
When the new overpass opened Nov. 2, Palmer said there was an overnight reduction in traffic.
“The second the overpass opened, the change was so dramatic,” she said. “If you’re in Sumner, you can now run an errand over into Puyallup at 4:30, and you don’t have to factor in an extra half hour.”
In the last few months, the separated pedestrian/bike section has been completed. Only a few side projects remain, like the street lighting and landscaping, Palmer said.
East Pierce Fire & Rescue Chief Bud Backer said firefighters at the Sumner station have been able to tell a difference.
“The expanded traffic flow heading south provides more room for other vehicles to move over and allow emergency vehicles to pass them,” he said in an email. “A definite improvement, but difficult, if not impossible for us to measure as it’s such a small part of any response route.”
The City of Sumner hopes the improved traffic will be easier for commuters taking the Sounder commuter train.
“It happened quite frequently where someone would be stuck in the backup watching their train go by without them,” Palmer said. “Once it’s back to normal, we want to be able to provide that dependability as well be able to get commuters in and out of our city.”
The overpass belongs to the Washington state Department of Transportation. Because the overpass did not pose any safety issues, it was low on the priority list for WSDOT, Palmer said, so the City of Sumner raised funds and asked to take lead on construction.
Sumner held an open house on the project in Fall 2016, and the project was fully funded by December 2018.
The total allocated amount for the project was $17.5 million. The project came in under budget, and Sumner has asked the state to reallocate the unused $500,000 for the 166th Avenue East interchange on state Route 410.
Sumner is looking at the two other state Route 410 interchanges: 166th Avenue East and state Route 162.
Palmer said the 166th interchange project was included in the city’s list of priorities to the state Legislature this session. The work is estimated to cost $7 million.
Sumner wants to widen the two-lane road north of the state Route 410 interchange, build two roundabouts at the on and off westbound ramp of state Route 410, and replace a fish passage on Salmon Creek near the intersection of 64th Street.
There are a couple of reasons the city has chosen to work on that interchange first. More dangerous accidents occur on 166th Avenue East than on state Route 162.
There are more “turn movement accidents,” like T-bone and head-on collisions, on 166th Avenue East than on state Route 162, according to traffic data from WSDOT. From 2014 to 2018, the 166th Avenue East interchanges saw 42 “turn movement accidents” and state Route 162 had 23.
“The second reason is that the 166th had some pretty easy fixes. So we can fix it faster, for less money than it’s going to take with (state Route) 162,” Palmer said.
Construction on the 166th Avenue East interchange is slated to begin in 2022.
This story was originally published January 31, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
