New $16 million bridge extends popular Pierce County trail to 22 miles, into King County

When crews close one bridge on the Foothills Trail, they open another.

Trail enthusiasts celebrated the opening of a new span across the White River on Saturday that extends the popular trail to 22 miles.

Linking the two sections of existing Foothills Trail with the 572-foot bridge means bikers and pedestrians can take the trail from Puyallup to Enumclaw.

Or they will be able to, once a separate bridge west of Buckley is rebuilt next year, among other projects.

The $16 million White River bridge project was paid for by a King County Parks levy, the city of Buckley, Pierce County, the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Program and the Foothills Rails-to-Trails Coalition, according to a King County Parks news release Monday.

The King County levy alone paid for $12.8 million for the weathered steel bridge.

The span is also an emergency route. Vehicles and pedestrians can use it if a disaster damages the state Route 410 bridge, the news release said.

“This is a project that’s taken a lot of advocacy and a lot of collaboration over the past 10 years, and finally we’ll have a bridge that will not only improve the Foothills Trail, but give trail users easier and safer access to Enumclaw and King County,” former Buckley Mayor Pat Johnson said in a news release on the Foothills Rails-to-Trails Coalition website .

Johnson sits on the coalition’s board.

The nonprofit’s news release said the lifespan of the new bridge is expected to be 70 to 80 years.

Spiketon Ditch Bridge update

The new bridge extends the Foothills Trail, but it will be some time before trail users can ride from one end of the trail to the other.

About 4 miles west of Buckley, the Spiketon Ditch Bridge has been out for nearly a year after crews found damage during a routine inspection.

Pierce County updated its Foothills Trail website July 24 to say that “technical studies and design are underway” and that they expect to open the bridge by next summer.

There’s no detour available.

Crews closed the old Spiketon Ditch Bridge in November 2023 and demolished it in June, following an emergency proclamation from County Executive Bruce Dammeier.

The bridge was in danger of collapse, according to the county’s website.

The 15-year-old bridge had rot and water damage, among other problems.

The replacement will cost $1.5 million and will be made from steel, as opposed to wood, which gives it an estimated lifespan of 75 years, Pierce County spokesperson Andriana Fletcher told The News Tribune via email Tuesday.

Until the Spiketon Ditch Bridge is rebuilt, the longest uninterrupted stretch of the trail that bikers and pedestrians have to use is the 17 miles from Puyallup to the closure.

When will trail users be able to travel from Puyallup to Enumclaw?

It’s not clear when bikers and pedestrians will be able to travel the full 22 miles , uninterrupted.

Up next on the Foothills Trail is the replacement of the Ski Park Bridge between South Prairie and Orting. That project is expected to begin in 2026, Fletcher said.

The Ski Park Bridge is about 3.5 miles from the Orting trailhead and 4 miles from the South Prairie trailhead.

It was built in 1904 as part of the railroad and sits in a wetland. It’s time has come.

The county plans to replace it with a concrete girder bridge that should last 100 years, according to the county website .

There will also be trail closures during upcoming work by the Washington State Department of Transportation to reconstruct culverts on part of the trail to improve fish passage.

“Right now, we cannot guarantee a timeframe for an uninterrupted Foothills Trail due to the upcoming Ski Park Bridge project and until we receive confirmation from WSDOT on the fish passage improvement work to take place on the Raunch Creek culverts under SR-162,” Fletcher wrote. “Pierce County Parks is continuing to coordinate with WSDOT. While we anticipate the WSDOT project to be significantly less of an impact on trail users compared to the upcoming bridge closures, we do not have a confirmed timeframe for this project.”

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