Be careful how you try to get out of — or into — Enumclaw this weekend, as SR 164 will be closed for five days, starting tomorrow, Aug. 27.

The full closure, which is south of the highway and SE 400th St./Krain-Wabash Rd. (just north of the White River Ampitheatre) to 212th Ave. SE (near the Enumclaw Sales Pavilion), starts at 7 a.m.

According to the Washington State Department of Transportation, closing the highway will allow construction crews to complete the Pussyfoot Creek Fish Passage project, which has affected traffic in the area since June 2021.

Crews “will be working on utilities, landscaping, and fixing areas along the banks of the creek affected by last season’s overabundant rainfall,” a press release reads. “This project is scheduled to be complete later this fall.”

Additional closures are to be expected in the near future as well; WSDOT plans to bring the highway down to one lane with alternating traffic during the weekdays from Sept. 1 to 19.

All lanes will be open on Labor Day and over the holiday weekend.

Detours for commuters are taking SE 400th St. to 212th Ave.; truckers are advised to use SE 400th St. to State Route 169.

The Pussyfoot Creek Fish Passage project had construction crews build a new 170-foot-long bridge in order to remove an old culvert under the highway and create a more natural creek bed.

This opened up more than nine additional miles of breeding areas for salmon, and allows steelhead, coastal cutthroat trout and resident fish to navigate the waters more easily.