"Highway 167 plan packs major economic punch"

Submitted by Paul Ellis

Kudos to The News Tribune for Sunday's editorial supporting SR-167's construction as part of the upcoming Roads & Transit package.

The piece offers some well-phrased observations--based upon the economic analysis recently released by WSDOT--about the benefits of the project to long-range job growth in the region:

By 2025, additional port business could create 79,000 new jobs — more than the number of Washington workers employed by Boeing...The Alaskan Way Viaduct and Highway 520 bridge projects can boast bigger safety and congestion-relief benefits, but can’t generate freight growth on the scale that the Highway 167 extension could.

As this blog has observed previously, SR-167 is the South Sound's "mega project"; this recognition by the press will help to make that case with the larger community.

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.