Tacoma project improves rail access

Landside freight movement to the Port of Tacoma will become easier thanks to the opening Wednesday of an overpass that separates commercial truck and motor vehicle traffic from railroad lines.

The $24.5 million project was the result of a public-private partnership to improve access to the industrial Tideflats area. The East D Street project is part of a regional freight action strategy designed to speed up the delivery of priority infrastructure improvements.

A coalition of local governments in the Seattle-Tacoma-Everett region, the state of Washington, rail carriers BNSF and Union Pacific, the Washington Truckers Association, and others share expertise and sometimes shift funds from projects that are delayed to ones that are ready to begin.

The separation of the grade crossing also allowed the realignment of the rail tracks to ease a curve along an adjacent waterway, tripling rail capacity on the corridor.

The partnership has organized $568 million of public and private funding for nine infrastructure projects and started four more since 1998. 

Source: Portnews