Council approves first reading of N. Levee ordinance

The first reading of the North Levee Road ordinance was approved during the June 22 meeting, although only four of seven Fife City Council members were in attendance.

Council members re-read and added amendments to the ordinance, including increasing the minimum weight restrictions from 10,000 to 26,000 pounds and permitting trucks to continue traveling on North Levee Road to 70th Avenue, which would allow for a safer detour route.

Earlier this month, council heard testimony from citizens and businesses regarding the proposed ordinance to ban trucks more than 10,000 pounds and hazardous placarded loads from utilizing North Levee Road.

Currently, trucks of any weight licensed by the state and placarded loads can utilize the street. In the past, Fife Public Works Director Russ Blount has told council that banning the route to truck traffic could have unintended consequences.

“There will be increases to traffic volumes in Fife, in particular, the already high-volume areas of the city,” Blount told council during the June 8 public hearing. According to traffic area studies, the average traffic queue for Fife’s most high-volume intersections could increase by 25 percent.

Area business operators shared similar traffic delay concerns with the council. Bruce Brown, vice president of the American Fast Freight trucking company located in Fife, attended the public hearing and wrote a letter to the city in protest over the proposed restrictions.   

“Closing the North Levee Road at Freeman Road will create an impossible business environment for businesses located on 70th Avenue,” Brown wrote.

Daniel Beal, vice president of physical assets for FedEx Freight, expressed similar concerns to the city.

“This restriction would put virtually all truck traffic onto Valley Avenue, which would have the effect of substantially slowing both our truck arrival and departure times because of congestion along that street,” Beal wrote in a letter to council.

North Levee Road has been a significant link in Fife’s truck routes since at least 1992. At that time, Frank Albert Bridge was built to carry Frank Albert Road over the Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR). Currently, the bridge is the only access for traffic to cross over the tracks, without being disrupted by rail traffic. However, traffic getting to the bridge must cross the narrowest segment of North Levee Road.

In 1998, council members decided to close portions of Valley Avenue East, 54th Avenue East and 20th Street East to truck traffic. In 2001, the council decided to close 54th Avenue East to all truck traffic, excluding emergency vehicles, at the UPRR bridge crossing.

In 2008, the city estimated that widening North Levee Road would have cost approximately $7.2 million. The road has been patched and overlaid since it was acquired by the city in the mid-1990s, but it remains largely unimproved from the rural standards to which it was built by Pierce County.

Over the past 15 years, approximately 10 accidents occurred on the narrowest portion. Three of these accidents have occurred within the past year.

Many citizens have conveyed their support for the council’s proposed closure plan. Fife Planning Commissioner Spence Braden told council that the road is “unsustainable for major truck traffic.”

Denise Webb, a three-year Fife resident, said the road is a safety issue for the public that needs to be taken seriously.

“When I moved here I thought, ‘I’m not going to die from an erupting mountain, I’m going to die from a car or truck on that road,’” Webb told the council during the June 8 public hearing.

Fife City Council is expected to adopt a final ordinance regarding restrictions on North Levee Road on July 13.

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