The Puget Sound Regional Council’s Executive Board has signed off on $7 million to push Pierce County’s Chambers Creek Bridge replacement into high gear, county officials announced Tuesday. The money comes through PSRC’s bridge funding pilot and, according to county staff, fully covers the design phase so the county can lock in an engineering consultant and finish preliminary engineering. The move removes an early but crucial money hurdle for the broader Chambers Bay estuary restoration effort that is tied to removing the dam upstream.
What the $7 million will pay for
Pierce County says the $7 million package will cover preliminary engineering, environmental review and the consultant contract needed to produce final plans, permitting materials and a bid-ready package for replacing the bridge. The county highlighted the award on its official Facebook account and cast the money as the key design funding the project needed to keep moving. Per Pierce County, the allocation flows from PSRC’s bridge funding pilot.
PSRC’s bridge pilot and the regional funding picture
PSRC staff pitched the bridge funding pilot as a way to use remaining federal Federal Highway Administration delivery capacity on smaller but critical bridge projects around the region once big-ticket efforts had already maxed out their federal shares. The concept was folded into PSRC’s project-tracking and supplemental funding packet earlier this spring. As outlined by the Puget Sound Regional Council, the pilot is meant to steer leftover federal dollars toward structurally vulnerable crossings that often struggle to compete for major regional awards, and to speed that money out the door instead of letting it sit on the sidelines.
A 1946 bridge and an estuary restoration
The Chambers Creek bridge is a 65-foot span built in 1946, jointly owned by Pierce County and the City of University Place, and it sits right in the middle of the Chambers Bay Estuary Restoration effort. That broader project includes removing the Chambers Creek dam and carrying out large-scale habitat work. County planning documents describe the bridge replacement as necessary to improve public safety, restore more natural tidal processes and support utility relocations that are tied directly to the estuary restoration. For the full scope and schedule to bring on a design consultant, see Pierce County; the county released its request for qualifications on April 8, 2026, with additional materials provided in the RFQ posting at GovTribe.
Next steps and timeline
Pierce County’s RFQ lays out a scope that covers preliminary and final design, environmental permitting support and coordination with tribes and neighboring jurisdictions. According to the procurement posting, consultants were expected to submit proposals in early May, with contract work stretching into 2027 and 2028 for final design and permitting. Once a consultant is under contract, the county plans to advance preliminary engineering, complete environmental review and hone a preferred alternative that will set right-of-way and construction cost estimates. PSRC’s action, as described in its supplemental funding materials, removes a key funding obstacle for the design phase and lets county staff press ahead on engineering and environmental work.
Why this matters locally
Swapping out the aging span means a safer, more reliable crossing for drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists and less chance that emergency repairs will suddenly snarl traffic around Chambers Creek Canyon. Just as important, planners say the bridge replacement is a linked step toward taking out the dam and reopening tens of acres of estuary habitat that support salmon and nearshore ecosystems. For more on the effort, project documents are available in the county’s materials and in the PSRC packet linked above.
