ROADS/BRIDGES: AGC Washington lends support to highway completion project

There is a push in Washington state to finish the State Route 167 project. Washington state transportation officials consider the SR-167 Completion Project to be the critical missing link in the state's highway network.

The completion is expected to improve safety and reduce congestion along local roads and freeways in the surrounding area.

The project’s main goal is to add the remaining six miles between Puyallup (SR-161) and Tacoma (SR-509) originally envisioned in the highway’s design 30 years ago. Once completed, the facility would be a divided highway with access points at interchanges in the following key locations: SR-509, 54th Avenue, I-5, Valley Avenue East and SR-161. 

Jerry Vanderwood, chief lobbyist for the Associated General Contractors of Washington, says that if the current transportation package in the legislature passes, about 100,000 construction jobs would be created over 16 years.