 The Chicago , Milwaukee , St. Paul and Pacific Railroad started to parallel the route by 1951 between Tacoma and Morton . During the 1964 highway renumbering the two branches of PSH 5 became SR 7 . Between 1968 and 2008 , the Chicago , Milwaukee , St. Paul and Pacific Railroad transferred the railroad parallel to the highway to Tacoma Rail . In 2002 , a new auxiliary route of SR 7 , SR 704 was established to provide a bypass of Tacoma to provide direct connections between Interstate 5 ( I @-@ 5 ) , Fort Lewis , McChord Air Force Base and SR 7 in Spanaway . On July 30 , 2008 , the Washington State Department of Transportation ( WSDOT ) had a groundbreaking ceremony to start construction of SR 704 , which has been predicted to be finished after 2017 . The segment of the highway between SR 507 in Spanaway to SR 512 in Parkland had a very high accident rate , so WSDOT added safety improvements to the roadway in 2007 . Between Morton and Spanaway , WSDOT is currently ( as of 2009 ) developing a route development plan to improve the roadway . The project is divided into three phases , the first phase was completed in 2006 and focused between Morton and Elbe and the second phase will be focused between Elbe and SR 702 while the third will focus between SR 702 to Spanaway . 
