SR 167 Weekend Closure Likely to Cause Traffic Headaches

SUMNER, WA — The City of Sumner and Washington State Department of Transportation are asking drivers to prepare for a construction closure later this month that is likely to cause miles of backups across East Pierce County.

Editor's note: an earlier version of this story incorrectly said the closure would begin the first weekend of August. It is scheduled for Aug. 20-23. Patch regrets the error.

As WSDOT explains, northbound SR 167 will be closed between Sumner and Pacific for several days starting Friday, Aug. 20, which is likely to cause widespread traffic problems as the tens of thousands of cars that commute across the state route will be rerouted onto city streets.

The closure runs for nearly four miles, from the interchange with SR 410 in Sumner to 8th Street East in Pacific. It is set to begin at 8:30 p.m. on Aug. 20, and wrap up at 4 a.m. the following Monday.

"During the closure, we'll use a mix of city and county streets as a detour," wrote WSDOT's Cara Mitchell. "None of them were built to handle the volume of SR 167 and that's where you come in. We'll all have to work together during this closure."

To put the severity of this closure in perspective: WSDOT says some 50,000 cars use northbound SR 167 between Puyallup and Auburn every day. If only half of those drivers, 25,000, try to use the same road during the closure, WSDOT models show that it could cause a 10-mile backup or more.

Unfortunately, there aren't any other freeways in the area that can absorb an extra 50,000 drivers per day, so even if daily traffic is low it's still likely to be major headache. To make the process as smooth as possible, WSDOT has outlined some easy detour routes, shown below.

Other drivers will likely flock to I-5, SR 161, SR 169 and SR 99, WSDOT said. Drivers on those freeways should also expect extra traffic as a result.

Still, they won't be enough to fix the problem.

"We can't stress enough that these are local streets," Mitchell said. "We truly need a lot of people to simply not go through this area during the weekend closure."

To cut down on the backup, WSDOT is asking drivers to consider delaying any trips north during the closure. If it's important that you head north posthaste, they ask that you use transit, carpool or vanpool options just to reduce the number of cars on the road. Drivers are also advised to give themselves an extra 90 minutes of travel time if they're passing through the area.

Though it will be a major pain that weekend, there is a silver lining to all this: during the closure crews will be installing and putting the finishing touches on a new northbound HOV lane, which should reduce congestion on SR 167 long-term, if drivers can tough out a rough few days.