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Fife Spending Millions on Roads: I-5 Corridor City Plans Breath of Fresh Air for Rampant Traffic Congestion

Posted on: Sunday, 11 June 2006, 06:00 CDT

By Rob Tucker, The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash.

Jun. 11--Road improvements that could bring major changes are planned or under way in Fife, including more than $20 million for main roads south of Interstate 5 and nearly $5 million for Pacific Highway East in the main business corridor.

"They're big and they're long overdue," said Fife Mayor Mike Kelley.

The small city suffers from traffic congestion caused by people who aren't from Fife, he said. Freeway drivers from Highway 167, which ends at Puyallup, travel west to connect to I-5, he said.

Many drivers going to and from Milton and Edgewood travel through Fife and jam 20th Street East for the same reason.

The $25 million pays for major improvements to primary roads that connect Fife to Tacoma, Federal Way, Puyallup and the Highway 167 freeway.

Pacific Highway East fixes will be completed in June. The other projects south of I-5 likely will begin within two years, officials said.

The projects include:

-- A widened 70th Avenue East, which will make it safer for trucks and vehicles going to and from major Fife warehouses and manufacturers. It also will serve new homeowners farther south.

-- A widened Valley Avenue East to Freeman Road, which will help ease traffic problems from drivers dumped off the end of the Highway 167 freeway. It also will open more Fife farmlands to urban development.

For some longtime residents, the relentless growth is overwhelming, especially when the city still lacks some normal urban services.

"It's hard for me to swallow all this," said Marian Martelli Wetsch, a 40-year resident and former mayor. "When I moved here, there were 1,500 people. There were two grocery stores and now we don't have any."

The city has already transformed from a farming community to a major industrial-commercial center with more than 1,000 businesses. Although some farming remains, state growth management laws adopted in 1990 helped ensure that agriculture will fade under urban pressures.

Fife can afford the road work thanks to city businesses that generate more that $7 million in annual sales tax revenues. Bonney Lake, nearly three times larger than Fife, receives less than half as much annual sales tax.

In addition to city funds, Fife received grants and spent real estate excise tax revenues, as well as impact payments from developers, to pay for the road improvements, said City Manager Steve Worthington.

"When the city incorporated (in 1957), it set us on the path to an urban center," Worthington said. "We'll achieve that sooner than people thought."

Fife expected to have 9,000 people in two decades. Worthington said the city will pass that mark in the next five years, making it about the size of present-day Sumner.

The city is looking at a population hike from 4,855 to 6,400 when the next state estimates come out this summer, making Fife about the size of Gig Harbor.

More than 15,000 people work in Fife during the day and more than 2,500 homes are being built or going up south of I-5, according to city estimates. Fife offers jobs and flat land along I-5, favorably located for commuters.

The city road improvements will help Port of Tacoma and Tideflats industry, of which Fife is a part, by improving connections between the port on one hand and export manufacturers and distribution warehouses on the other.

In the longer range, the city is exploring construction of an overpass near the Port of Tacoma Road exit off I-5 to connect it with Highway 509. This would help trucks get to the port faster and eliminate traffic congestion in Fife.

The City Council included sidewalk construction to existing roads and to the current road projects to help residents, Worthington said.

Big changes on Fife roads

1. 70th Avenue East, widened from two to five lanes. Includes sidewalks from 20th Street East to the Union Pacific Railroad crossing.

2. Valley Avenue East, widened from two lanes to four and five lanes. Includes sidewalks from 70th to Freeman Road East. *

3. Valley Avenue East, widened to three lanes from 54th Street East to city-owned property near 70th. Includes sidewalks on the south side of Valley.

4. 20th Street East, widened from two to three and four lanes from 54th to 62nd avenues east.

5. Pacific Highway East, widened from four to five and six lanes from Alexander Road to Port of Tacoma Road.

Rob Tucker: 253-597-8374

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Copyright (c) 2006, The News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The News Tribune

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