Yelm Loop completion now projected for Fall 2025

WSDOT communications consultant Doug Adamson wrote in an e-mail reported by the Nisqually Valley News (NVN), “WSDOT is required under state and federal regulations to evaluate this project’s effects on the environment and neighboring communities. Historic and cultural resource reviews are required on all WSDOT projects that include ground-disturbing activities or effects to historical or culturally sensitive areas. We were aware of recorded sites within the corridor before we started this process, and it was no surprise to find one site eligible for the national register.” He added they cannot share much more information at this time because of the high sensitivity of this process and out of respect to their partners.

• Editor’s note: Yelm’s Wal-Mart opened in 2007, yet Yelm’s Traffic Mitigation Plan for Wal-Mart required the bypass to be completed by 2013. However, the bypass was unfunded in then-Gov. Gregoire’s budget until the 2021-2023 biennium. To this day, there is still no Bypass to mitigate Wal-Mart’s traffic and may not be until 2025.
• Click here for the complete story previously covered on this blog.

From the WSDOT SR 51g.0 Yelm Loop website:

Next steps: WSDOT is in the process of a federally required environmental assessment phase that will continue into fall 2021. The in-depth process will involve an update of the Environmental Assessment which will be completed in 2021. Efforts will produce a detailed environmental document called a Supplemental Environmental Assessment.

The End Result 
In this project, crews will build the 3 remaining miles of SR 510 between Cullens Road and 170th Street Southeast. The new connection, like the previously built Phase 1, is proposed to be a two-lane highway with bicycle and pedestrian facilities.

Timeline

• Environmental reevaluation – Winter 2019 – Fall 2021
• Project advertised for competitive bidding – Early 2023
• Construction – Summer 2023
• Project completion – Early Fall 2025