Washington State Route 167

On January 7, 2012, we drove the length of Washington State Route 167 from Tacoma to Renton, mostly the Valley Freeway...

RCW 47.17.330
State route No. 167:

A state highway to be known as state route number 167 is established as follows:

Beginning at a junction with state route number 5 in the vicinity of Tacoma, thence easterly by way of the vicinity of Puyallup and Sumner, thence northerly by way of the vicinity of Auburn and Kent to a junction with state route number 900 in the vicinity of Renton.

East of downtown Tacoma, over by the Puyallup River, SR 167 begins in this mess of construction beneath I-5. WSDOT is in the process of widening I-5 over the river. ...Even though we'll be going north on SR 167, we're facing south here as we cross under east-west I-5. Just so you know.


We circle past the cemetary and the casino and begin the long straightaway called River Road, adjacent to the south side of the Puyallup River. This used to be part of Highway 410. I'm not quite sure why it still isn't. We're headed ESE, but officially north on SR 167. When we get to Puyallup, we turn north across the river on Meridian and quickly come to this junction with SR 161. The two highways come from north and south on Meridian Ave and join together east on a freeway.


Now we're rolling! A mile after the freeway starts, SR 161 exits southward. This is also a junction with SR 512, since those two highways are one and the same through downtown Puyallup.


Another mile later, in Sumner, we come to the junction with the truncated SR 410. Time to turn finally turn north!


SR 167 leaves the Puyallup River and heads up the White River north to Auburn. Turn back six score years and you'd be going up the Stuck River to Slaughter, but the town was renamed in 1893 and the White River was redirected in 1906 from flowing north to Seattle to flowing south to Tacoma. So here we are, in Auburn, at the junction with SR 18. Covington, North Bend, Spokane!


So the old White River valley is now the Green River valley. Welcome to Kent, née Titusville. SR 516 here will take you into town and also up the hill to Des Moines. (Pronounce the final S!)


We speed along northward to Renton. Wait, what's this? Speed limit 45? Isn't this a freeway? Junction with I-405. Seattle or Bellevue? We choose neither and go straight.


The freeway ends. Welcome to Renton. We cross Grady Way, the railroad tracks, and the old location of the Black River (which was the outlet of Lake Washington till 1916). We then arrive at the junction with SR 900, Sunset Boulevard, the old Sunset Highway from Seattle to Spokane. Our drive is over, right?


Not quite. A block later, we come to the end of SR 167, at an intersection with the westbound lanes of SR 900.

So there you are: Washington State Route 167. An old familiar freeway to me. Maybe someday, WSDOT will scrape together some funds to finish the freeway from Tacoma to Puyallup...