Transportation

From tolls on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge to improvements to roads causing traffic jams, Gig Harbor Now reporters stay on top of issues that affect getting where you’re going.

Project engineer Justin Janke, on the lagoon side of the bridge, describes how the streambed was built to keep the creek on the surface. The area fills up with seawater during high tides.

Highway 302 Spur bridge opening Saturday

Nov 29, 2023 | By: Gig Harbor Now Staff

The road has been closed and a short detour in place since April for a fish passage project.

Pierce County offers holiday shuttle connecting Key Peninsula, Gig Harbor

Nov 24, 2023 | By: Vince Dice

Pierce County will contract with private operator Around the Sound to operate a shuttle service connecting the Key Peninsula to attractions in Gig Harbor on weekends during the 2023 holiday season. The county hopes that the temporary service will serve as a pilot program that leads to improved transit service on the Key Peninsula, according

Pierce County program brings art to local intersections

Nov 21, 2023 | By: Marsha Hart

If you’ve been stopped at a traffic light in Pierce County, you’ve likely seen some beautiful pieces of art in unlikely places. In an effort to bring art to the community and beautify the utilitarian boxes that house traffic signal wires, the Pierce County Arts Commission in 2022 began a project to wrap signal boxes

Overnight work planned for this week on Highway 302 spur

Oct 23, 2023 | By: Ed Friedrich

As part of the Purdy Creek culvert project, crews will pave the Highway 302 spur from just south of the new bridge in Purdy to where the spur meets Highway 16. The work will occur overnight next Monday through Friday, Oct. 23-27. Traffic will be directed around it. From 7 p.m. each night until 6

Driver in fatal Highway 16 crash charged with vehicular homicide

Oct 16, 2023 | By: Vince Dice

Witnesses told Washington State Patrol troopers that a 54-year-old Federal Way woman appeared to be driving over 100 mph in the wrong lane of Highway 16 when she struck and killed a 30-year-old Shelton woman on Oct. 7 near Rosedale Street. Prosecutors charged the suspect, Mecca K. Berkins, with vehicular homicide in Pierce County Superior

Don’t expect to see ramp meters on eastbound Highway 16 used very often

Oct 16, 2023 | By: Vince Dice

Ramp meters on Gig Harbor-area onramps to eastbound Highway 16 are active as of Monday, Oct. 16. But you probably won’t see them used very often, unless something bad happens. The Washington State Department of Transportation announced on Oct. 2 that the new meters would be re-activated. They were used during construction of the second

The main taxiway will be shifted 50 feet further from the runway to meet FAA regulations.

Plan to clear trees at Tacoma Narrows Airport delayed

Oct 10, 2023 | By: Vince Dice

The first phase of Pierce County’s plans to improve safety at Tacoma Narrows Airport is delayed, the county announced last month. The cost to remove trees and erect fencing around the airport exceeded a Federal Aviation Administration grant for that purpose. The county still plans to go forward with the project, which the FAA requires for safety

Streetlight bulb failures leave part of Gig Harbor in the dark

Oct 09, 2023 | By: Charlee Glock-Jackson

In 2017, the city of Gig Harbor installed LED bulbs in each of its 1,200 streetlights, replacing old metal halide bulbs. The upgrade cost about $300 per bulb. The change reduced energy consumption and saved the city money on its power bills. It also reduced the amount of time the public works staff spent replacing

Ramp meters on eastbound Highway 16 on-ramps to be activated soon

Oct 03, 2023 | By: Vince Dice

Correction: This story has been updated to correct an error. The ramp meters were used for a short period before being de-activated. The Washington state Department of Transportation will activate ramp meters, which control traffic merging onto a freeway, starting Oct. 16 at Gig Harbor’s onramps to eastbound Highway 16. The meters are already in

Purdy project open to salmon, not yet to cars

Sep 21, 2023 | By: Ed Friedrich

As the Purdy culvert replacement winds down to a December completion, fish passage work at Highway 16 will shift eastbound drivers into the median until Fall 2024.

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