Traffic Payout

By Guest Blogger Kevin Jeffers – Rail Engineering Manager

The Pt. Defiance Bypass project is a capital rail project that will reroute passenger trains that currently operate on the BNSF Railway main line near Pt. Defiance and along southern Puget Sound to an existing rail line that runs along the west side of I-5 through south Tacoma, Lakewood, and DuPont. Part of the bypass route is the same route that Sound Transit will use to extend Sounder commuter rail to Lakewood.

At a Lakewood City Council meeting on November 9, WSDOT staff from the State Rail and Marine office gave a presentation on the Pt. Defiance Bypass project. During the presentation, several videos were shown on traffic simulations for Bridgeport Way, Thorne Lane, and Berkeley Ave. There were also videos showing a comparison of train speeds between freight and passenger trains and a video demonstrating wayside horns.




Demonstration of wayside horns installed at McCarver and Ruston Way in Tacoma, WA

You can view this video on our streaming server if you can't access it on YouTube.

Pt. Defiance Rail Bypass project - traffic simulations

You can view this video on our streaming server if you can't access it on YouTube.

Comparison of freight and passenger train speeds in Puyallup, WA
You can view this video on our streaming server if you can't access it on YouTube.

There were several questions and comments from both the Council and community members in attendance as well as some strong opinions on the project. We take your comments seriously and want to make sure that your questions are being answered (pdf 32kb). For the most up to date information on the project, please visit our project page. If you have any comments or questions, please e-mail us.