Why is Marine View Drive in Tacoma closing on July 28?

Q: I hear Marine View Drive in Tacoma is closing down for most of July 28. What gives?

A: You’ve heard right, dear readers.

Marine View Drive, which connects Northeast Tacoma to Fife, the Port of Tacoma and the city proper, will be closed from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday (July 28), according to the state Department of Transportation.

The closure will affect Marine View Drive between about Slayden Road, which is near the Cliff House restaurant, and Norpoint Way Northeast near the port. There will be limited access to McMurray Road Northeast and East 11th Street.

Signs alerting drivers to the closure are up at both ends. It has been our experience at Traffic Q&A headquarters that the local authorities mark an acceptable detour route through Northeast Tacoma when such closures occur. And occur they do, usually for landslides in the rainy season.

But we digress.

As to why Marine View Drive will close: It is necessary to accommodate traffic and activity associated with The Power Paddle to Puyallup, in which people from more than 100 Native American tribes will paddle canoes to Tacoma for a week-long camp-out and celebration.

The Puyallup Tribe, which is hosting the visitors, expects participants from Alaska, California, Oregon, New York, British Columbia, New Zealand, and, of course, Washington.

The paddlers are expected to be welcomed ashore about 11 a.m. Saturday on Puyallup Tribe ancestral land near the mouth of the Hylebos waterway.

Want to watch?

“Regular public shuttles to the landing ceremony will leave from 2102 Alexander Ave. in Tacoma beginning at 8 a.m. and will run regularly throughout the day,” according to the Puyallup Tribe.

So there might be some added traffic on Alexander Avenue that day, too.