'Once-in-a-lifetime project' will connect Puyallup to Port of Tacoma

A lot can happen in three decades. Cities change and neighbors come and go. But Fife resident Warren Walsborn and his family stayed. 

“Probably about three or four years after I was here, then I started getting notices that we’re going to take your property,” Walsborn said. 

Twenty-five years ago, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) was acquiring land for a new expressway project connecting I-5 to the Port of Tacoma. They initially wanted Walsborn’s land, but he did not sell. 

He’s now one of the only houses still standing on his street. 

“It’s been a rollercoaster of, 'Do I have to move? Can I stay? Where do I go?'" Walsborn said.

The new expressway will be close to his home, but he can stay put. Construction began this summer to alleviate the semi-congestion butting up to his backyard in Fife.

Truck traffic has been a problem for years. The vision of this connector talked about for decades.

“There was a gap in time primarily through the latter part of the ’70s and ’80s where very little happened,” said John White, program administrator for the Puget Sound Gateway Program.

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