A semi truck drives through a ribbon celebrating the SR167 opening while community partners hold the ribbon.

Decades in the making, the new State Route 167 expressway is ready for drivers.

The Washington State Department of Transportation hosted a ribbon cutting for the new toll road running between I-5 and SR509 near the Port of Tacoma on September 11, marking a new era in freight mobility for trucks serving the Port. 

Three trucks drove through a ribbon held by local dignitaries. They included Port of Tacoma Commission President Dick Marzano, who has long served on the executive committee for the Puget Sound Gateway Program, which includes the SR167 project and an extended SR509 in King County.

Port of Tacoma Commission President Dick Marzano speaks at the SR167 Ribbon Cutting“It’s just phenomenal,” Marzano said as he stood beside the new expressway. “Moving cargo safer and more efficiently is going to help everybody.”

The two-mile expressway is the first section of a new six-mile corridor between the Port and Puyallup, which the state is opening in stages. When the last phase of the SR167 completion project opens in 2029, it will provide a direct highway connection between marine cargo terminals managed by The Northwest Seaport Alliance and warehouses in the Kent Valley.

The vision for a completed SR167 was first identified in the 1950s. After the Port of Tacoma helped to build a coalition that included business and agricultural leaders on both sides of the Cascades, it became one of the top funded projects in the state’s 2015 Connecting Washington transportation package.

Aerial shot of the new SR167 Expressway“What a day! This project has been going on for decades,” said Port of Tacoma Executive Director Eric Johnson after the ribbon cutting.

Johnson notes many people championed the project, including Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, Lieutenant Governor and former Congressman Denny Heck, House Transportation Chair Jake Fey, former House Transportation Chair Judy Clibborn, and Sean Eagan, the Port of Tacoma’s Director of Government Relations. “He should have a roundabout named for him,” Johnson said of Eagan.

The Port of Tacoma contributed $30 million to the project, which helps keep the Seattle-Tacoma marine cargo gateway competitive and supports family-wage jobs. The new expressway is open to all traffic and is expected to reduce congestion on local streets.

Community partners hold the ribbon at the SR167 Expressway Ribbon CuttingWSDOT said the new expressway will open to drivers by 9:00am on Sunday, September 14. Travel will be free at first, with toll collection beginning in December.

The project includes more than 165 acres of restored wetlands. WSDOT worked with the Puyallup Tribe of Indians to restore a natural floodplain along Hylebos Creek. The spuyaləpabš trail, a shared-use path featuring work by Coast Salish artists, is included in the SR167 project.