Media coverage over the last few days and examined what the collapse of the Skagit River Bridge means for the local economy given its location on I-5-- a critical arterial. Others have focused on the safety implications. But what happens if a "bridge" was never built in the first place?

The News Tribune this morning focused on the economics, describing SR-167 as "a job-creating bridge waiting to be built." As the paper noted, "Helicopters with camera crews may not be circling it, but the unfinished six-mile gap between state Route 167 and the Port of Tacoma is also strangling commerce and jobs. It’s the economic equivalent of a ruptured freeway no one bothered to fix."

There also is the safety question. Some might argue that a highway inherently cannot be unsafe if it is doesn't exist. But what is the alternative for the thousands of trucks and passenger vehicles who traverse daily between Tacoma and east Pierce County? The current gap in SR-167 between Puyallup and the Port consists of surface streets with multiple turns, intersections and driveways. These features result in accident ratios on the non-freeway segment of SR-167 that are 20 to 70 percent higher than statewide averages for similar highways.

With only a few days left in the special session, it is time for the Legislature to fix the ruptured freeway of SR-167 that no one bothered to build in the first place.