Washington State Route 162 - History

History

SR 162 was codified as SSH 5E during the creation of the primary and secondary state highways in 1937, beginning at Primary State Highway 5 (PSH 5) and U.S. Route 410 in Puyallup, traveling through Orting and South Prairie to end at an intersection with a branch of PSH 5 southwest of Buckley. SSH 5E had a branch that traveled south from Orting to Electron that was removed from the state highway system in 1955. The highway traveled across the Puyallup River into Orting on the McMillin Bridge, which opened in 1934 as a concrete half-through truss bridge to save the Department of Highways a total of $826. SR 165 was established during the 1964 highway renumbering and was codified in 1970 as the replacement to SSH 5E. The western terminus, now at SR 410, was moved east to an interchange in Sumner after the completion of the Sumner Freeway in 1972. The McMillin Bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 as an example of a half-through truss bridge built with concrete instead of steel. The route of the highway has not seen a major revision since 1972; however, WSDOT repaved the roadway and added guardrails between Orting and Buckley in 2008. The deteriorating McMillin Bridge is being replaced by WSDOT with a newer, wider span over the Puyallup River scheduled to begin construction in 2014.