Foothills Trail receives funding for bridge construction

The bridge will hopefully be open to foot traffic in spring 2024.

By Ray Miller-Still • November 28, 2022 3:40 pm
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Submitted image Foothills Trail users can look forward to walking over the White River on a new bridge come spring 2024; this is a rendering of what the bridge could look like.
Submitted image Foothills Trail users can look forward to walking over the White River on a new bridge come spring 2024; this is a rendering of what the bridge could look like.

King County recently accepted funds for the eventual construction of the much-anticipated Foothills Trail bridge.

The bridge, which is slated to start being built mid-January 2023, is expected to cost around $13.5 million.

Most of the budget, about $10 million, is covered by the King County Park Levy, but the county council officially accepted another $316,000 from the Foothills Rails to Trails Coalition and Pierce County.

“I am grateful for the partnership with Pierce County and the Foothills Rails-to-Trails Coalition that makes this project possible,” said Councilmember Reagan Dunn in a Nov. 22 press release announcing the news. “The Foothills Trail is a resource that crosses jurisdictional boundaries, and it is only through collaboration that we are able to move forward with this exciting addition.”

“The Foothills Rails-to-Trails Coalition is thrilled with the passage of Councilmember Dunn’s legislation to get us one step closer to completing this vital link between the communities of Buckley and Enumclaw, and King and Pierce Counties,” Dan Bucci, President of the Coalition, in the same release. “The Foothills Trail White River Bridge is a project that truly embodies the mission of our coalition, which is to support the creation, maintenance and usage of a continuous, non-motorized trail network connecting communities in Pierce County (and beyond) from Mount Rainier to the Puget Sound.”

This portion of the trail is known officially as “Foothills Trail Segment B”; the segment spans about 1.5 miles of unfinished trail, which includes the bridge. The money from Pierce County and the coalition will go specifically toward bridge construction.

Building the bridge and finishing the trail will be Ceccanti, Inc., which successfully bid on the project last August. The project will break ground on Jan. 18, 2023, with an estimated completion date of spring of 2024.

Once completed, the Foothills Trail will stretch for 30 miles through southern King County and Pierce County. This trail includes segments that connect Carbonado to Wilkeson; South Prairie to Puyallup; Cascade Junction to Buckley; and across Enumclaw.

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