SR 167 Puyallup River bridges reopen earlier than expected

The northbound and southbound bridges that span the Puyallup River on state Route 167 in Puyallup reopened to traffic ahead of schedule Sunday, the state Department of Transportation reported.

The southbound span reopened just before noon Sunday, 17 hours ahead of schedule, WSDOT said in a news release. The reopening of the northbound span followed at 3:25 p.m., more than 13 hours earlier than expected.

The bridges were closed at 8 p.m. Friday to allow crews to move an out-of-service steel truss bridge away from the site. WSDOT is hopeful that the old bridge, built in 1925, can someday be repurposed, perhaps as a pedestrian bridge. If not, the bridge will be recycled.

Transportation officials had hoped to have the bridges reopened by 5 a.m. Monday.

“Something of this magnitude is far from routine,” Dewayne Matlock, WSDOT project engineer, said in the release. “We are very happy everything went according to plan.”

This story was originally published August 9, 2015 at 5:35 PM with the headline "SR 167 Puyallup River bridges reopen earlier than expected."