Fife’s SR 167 ‘Speedway’ Inches Toward First Big Opening

Drivers around Fife may finally be getting a taste of the long-promised SR 167 Expressway, as WSDOT says it is getting closer to opening the first two miles of the new corridor through the city. That initial stretch includes a diverging-diamond interchange designed to carry the tolled roadway over I-5, and project staff say they will be at Meeker Days in Puyallup to walk people through the staged opening and traffic changes. The short segment is the front end of a larger, roughly six-mile expressway intended to move freight faster to the Port of Tacoma while adding new trail and bridge connections for local trips.

The work is part of the SR 167 Completion Project, which will build about six miles of new tolled expressway between Puyallup and the Port of Tacoma and reconfigure several interchanges. WSDOT’s project page notes that pieces of the new roadway and its interchange will come online in stages, with the first sections scheduled to open in fall 2026, according to WSDOT.

Pierce Transit amplified the latest update on June 10, retweeting WSDOT’s post that crews are “getting closer to opening the first 2 miles” and that the SR 167 team will be at Meeker Days to talk with neighbors and commuters, per Pierce Transit. The Meeker Days appearance gives riders a chance to ask about ramp changes, new trail segments and how tolling will be phased in.

Local construction bulletins from the City of Fife show crews have already finished the new Wapato Way East bridge over I-5 and continue embankment, bridge and trail work that will feed into the expressway, which officials say helps enable early lane openings. The city has been posting weekly construction look-aheads that spell out planned closures and staging as contractors wrap up bridge and diverging-diamond components, according to Fife.

What Drivers Will Notice

When the new piece opens, drivers can expect the diverging-diamond setup to move turning traffic more efficiently across I-5 and cut some of the backup at Meridian Avenue and nearby ramps. The wider project includes new bridges and an eight-mile segment of the spuyaləpabš multi-use trail, and the expressway is being built as a tolled facility under the Puget Sound Gateway Program, per WSDOT.

Timeline and Context

The SR 167 effort is one piece of a multistage program that has been moving forward for several years. A contract for a major construction package was reported in 2024 as the project advanced to the next phase. Industry coverage has continued to track staging and schedules, noting that Stage 2 construction began in 2022 and was expected to wrap up in 2026 as crews build the new interchange and embankments, per Pacific Builder & Engineer.

Project staff will be at Meeker Days this weekend, and nearby neighborhoods should expect intermittent lane shifts and short closures as crews finish the remaining work. For updates, riders and drivers can check Pierce Transit and the city pages for Puyallup and Fife, which post construction bulletins and detour information; see the construction alerts at Puyallup.