No more delays bringing State Route 167 to Tacoma. Pierce County can’t wait
Editor’s note: This editorial was updated late Thursday afternoon to reflect that an agreement has been reached and the highway project will continue.
Pierce County’s infamous highway to nowhere faces a frustrating new detour on the road to somewhere. Two potential detours, actually.
A bipartisan chorus of South Sound legislators responded by raising their voices, refusing to sit quietly while completion of the last four miles of state Route 167 — left unfinished between Puyallup and the Port of Tacoma since the 1980s — skidded down the state priority list.
In a strong show of 253-area-code unity, they sent a letter to Gov. Jay Inslee this week, challenging his administration’s recent freeze of the SR167 project due to pandemic-related budget uncertainty. They called it a “short-sighted decision” that “breaks faith” with Pierce County residents and treats an essential regional freight-mobility corridor as an “afterthought.”
Feisty words, but a vital message. As it is, the missing link of SR167 isn’t scheduled for completion until 2028. Any further delay would be unacceptable.
Fortunately, Inslee’s budget director told the state Department of Transportation Thursday that SR167 and other paused projects could restart because the governor and legislators had agreed to a funding plan.
That’s great news. Pushing the pause button would not only hurt the Port of Tacoma and local port-dependent communities, it also would undercut farmers, manufacturers and shippers on both sides of the Cascades who need better access to global markets. It also would keep big-rig cargo haulers bogging down Interstate 5 traffic longer than necessary.
And while pandemic hits to state transportation funding can’t be ignored, neither can the threat to the Puget Sound’s economic recovery if this project were to go dark. Thousands of infrastructure jobs hang in the balance.
“It is time to lift the freeze. It is time to complete State Route 167. It is time to finish what we started,” concludes the letter signed by 19 legislators — 12 Democrats and seven Republicans.
We couldn’t agree more. Inslee shouldn’t backslide on a project he’s supported since his first term, all the way through the ribbon cutting of the first phase 15 months ago.
To recap: The Legislature approved a massive statewide transportation package in 2015, made possible by an 11.9-cent gas tax hike and key votes from Pierce County lawmakers.
The unfinished section of SR167 accounts for half of a $2 billion regional megaproject; the other half goes to State Route 509 in King County. Together they’re called the Puget Sound Gateway, designed to improve the movement of goods and people between the Tacoma-Seattle corridor and points east.
Years of waiting and planning suddenly got real last year. That’s when hardhat work began on the first phase of construction in Pierce County: a new 70th Avenue East bridge in Fife, the site of a new interchange that will connect I-5 with the future terminus of SR167.
Then the governor pumped the brakes, weeks before the next phase of work was set to go out for bid.
The delay rankled local legislators, particularly since the next phase of the SR509 project advanced with Inslee’s blessing.
“From our point of view, it comes across once again that the citizens of Pierce County are being told they must wait while King County projects are prioritized,” they wrote.
It sure does. And the disparate treatment doesn’t just poke regional sensitivities; it also disrupts a Gateway project that was designed to proceed on parallel tracks.
A spokesman for the governor told us Tuesday there could be news on the state’s list of paused projects within a few weeks; he said Inslee’s staff will work with legislative transportation leaders “to find an alternate approach.”
Mission accomplished. Some credit should go to the local delegation, which once earned the nickname Pierce County Mafia. The names and faces have changed through the years, but don’t underestimate their influence in Olympia.
Meantime, another potential detour could affect how transportation megaprojects are funded going forward. Senate Bill 5232 would rescind toll bond authorizations that the Legislature granted in 2019 to expedite the Puget Sound Gateway, as well as the Renton-to-Bellevue Interstate 405 express toll lanes.
If approved, the state couldn’t implement early tolling on those projects and sell construction bonds based on the increased stream of toll revenue. The result? SR167 completion would be pushed back at least three years.
The “Toll It, Bond it, Build It” deal was negotiated in good faith two years ago, and the Legislature shouldn’t renege on it now. A conga line of Puget Sound economic development leaders spoke against SB5232 at a public hearing Tuesday. We hope the proposal is headed for an early grave.
Pierce County communities have waited far too long already for a highway to somewhere.
This story was originally published January 28, 2021 at 11:00 AM.