Time can play funny tricks on you. Sometimes something last so longs that generations may come and go, replaced by new generations that don't know the history of a project. Because a project is new to them, they might somehow think the project itself is inherently new.
We sometimes experience this when talking to people about State Route 167. It has been so long since actual construction activity has occurred on this half-built highway that some folks think SR-167 is actually a new project. In reality, SR-167 is a completion project-- the completion of a project that has been phased so may times and for so long that sometimes people forget where and when it all started.
The Maple Valley Reporter reminds us otherwise: "Engineers began planning the first phases of State Routes 167 and 509 in the 1950s, and road crews built them in the 1960s — but from the start, the intention was that someday these corridors would connect to I-5." That's right folks-- the 1950s!
That someday is now. "The heart of the story is structured around finishing what you started," WSDOT's John White explained to the Auburn City Council last week.
To read the full story, check out the Maple Valley Reporter here.