SR 167 closed all weekend from Sumner to Auburn

Drivers who use southbound SR 167 near the city of Pacific will have to find another way around during a weekend closure.

The lanes will be shut down between Sumner and Auburn.

There will be detours in place, but officials warn they will be challenging.

Between 11 p.m. Friday and 5 a.m. Monday, all southbound lanes will be closed between Ellingston Road and 8th Street East. The 8th Street East off-ramp from southbound SR 167 will be closed as well.

WSDOT has provided a map for a detour route.

Over the weekend, crews plan to repave a mile of southbound SR 167, finalize the highway’s permanent configuration, and install the west half of the Jovita Creek 368-foot fish-passable culvert that crosses under the southbound lanes of the freeway.

According to the News Tribune, the culvert project has to do with a court decision in a Federal lawsuit brought forward by Northwest tribes.

The News Tribune says an injunction in the case requires the Washington State Department of Transportation to rebuild poorly-designed culverts – pipes that carry water under roads– blocking salmon and steelhead trout from reaching spawning beds.

Nearly 1,000 culverts will have to be replaced statewide by 2030.

The other project is part of widening SR 167 to add a lane in the southbound direction and extend the existing high occupancy toll lanes system south on SR 167 in the Green River Valley.

Expanding the 9-mile SR 167 HOT lanes will connect King and Pierce County communities to employment hubs in the Puget Sound area.

Extending the southbound HOT lane from its existing end point at 37th Street NW in Auburn to 8th Street East in Pacific will reduce congestion and improve traffic flow and safety on SR 167, according to WSDOT.

The work on the addition of the lane will continue into the fall.