Introducing the Plateau Transportation Partnership

Submitted by Paul Ellis

At their December 6 meeting, RAMP participants heard about a new transportation coalition: the Plateau Transportation Partnership.

This new group brings together Plateau 465, Cascadia, Falling Water, the Weyerhaeuser Co., Miles Sand & Gravel and Woodworth & Co. as well as Troutlodge, Inc., Tacoma Water and Puget Sound Energy to allow these parties to share information and perspectives regarding the need for a comprehensive transportation plan for the Bonney Lake plateau area, which includes the Alderton-McMillin planning area and the cities of Orting, Sumner and Bonney Lake. This group will also leverage potential economic efficiencies relative to “pooling” private and public resources for the joint development of much needed transportation infrastructure in that east county area.

To further these goals, the Plateau Transportation Partnership has been formed in order to:

• Create, with Pierce County, a public-private partnership to fund and construct Rhodes Lake Road E., upon route establishment by Pierce County, from SR-162 to 198th Ave. E.;
• Create, with the State Department of Transportation, a public-private partnership to fund and construct SR-162 from 128th St. E. to Pioneer Way E.;
• Work with RAMP and WSDOT to leverage these partnerships to gain support for the RTID funding initiative;
• Work with RAMP, Pierce County, the cities and others to increase the priority of funding transportation improvements in the SR-167, SR-410, and SR-162 corridors.

Paul Ellis is lead staff for RAMP; an employee of the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber, Ellis led the Pierce County Transportation Advisory Committee (PCTAC), the community's largest transportation planning effort.