Date:
Monday, November 13, 2006
Contact:
Lorena Eng, Regional Administrator, (206) 440-4706 (Seattle)
Travis Phelps, WSDOT Communications, (206) 440-4470 (Seattle)
MONROE - WSDOT announced today the results of a technical assessment to identify locations where roadway projects could be conducted on a section of US 2 for purposes of improving safety and addressing backups between Snohomish and Skykomish.
The locations and the projects that might be taken forward were based on ideas from local residents and members of the U.S. 2 Working Group, as well as technical analysis by WSDOT staff and a private traffic engineering consulting firm.
Funding for the $1.3 million study was established through multiple sources. Senator Patty Murray and Congressman Rick Larsen secured a $500,000 federal grant, the state legislature earmarked $700,000 and the Puget Sound Regional Council contributed $100,000.
Very few if any of the identified projects could be constructed in the foreseeable future under the existing picture of public revenues available for highway investment and the long list of projects around the entire state that also compel attention. Many of the project locations identified in the U.S. 2 project list have been considered in insufficient detail to allow the development of good cost estimates. However, even before accounting for inflation that will erode the dollar’s purchasing power in the years until projects could be built, the total cost of the projects if they were to be built today would be well in excess of a billion dollars.
WSDOT Regional Administrator Lorena Eng said, “With the Working Group, we will be trying to identify a crucial few projects that could now be carried out for safety improvements. However, with funds so short, the safety goals must surely also target impaired, speeding and aggressive drivers with stepped up enforcement from the local jurisdictions. Since 1999, almost 40 percent of the fatal collisions in this roadway area involved drivers’ use of alcohol.”
Eng also commented, “Commercial and residential development is occurring very rapidly in this area with almost no provision for upgrading state highway infrastructure. That situation does not have a quick or easy fix from the state. Patience may be an increasingly important quality for new users as well as old on this portion of the U.S. 2 corridor.”
The technical assessment reported on today relied on traffic, collision, demographic and environmental information. This morning the proposed project locations were presented to the US 2 Corridor Working Group representing Snohomish, Monroe, Sultan, Gold Bar, Index and Skykomish, as well as Snohomish and King counties, Community Transit, Puget Sound Regional Council, and WSDOT.
Some of the projects on the list include:
Safety enhancements
- Additional lighting
- Additional reflectors in roadway centerline
- Rumblestrips
Snohomish to west of Monroe
- Build a 4-lane limited access freeway with a median barrier
- Construct a westbound overcrossing on-ramp at Bickford
Monroe
- Build a phased version of the Monroe Bypass
- Add a bicycle lane for US 2 through Monroe City Center
- Improve sidewalks
East Monroe to Gold Bar
- Expand to 4 lanes with a 4-foot center line rumble strip
- Build an 8-foot shoulders
- Improve intersections
East Gold Bar to Skykomish
- Install a 4-foot center line rumble strip
- Build an 8-foot shoulders with shoulder rumble strip
- Improve intersections
WSDOT invites the public to review the project list and comment on our Web site at: www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/us2/rdp and at upcoming public meetings:
Sky Valley Chamber of Commerce
December 6, 12 - 1 p.m.
The Dutch Cup Restaurant, Sultan
Open House
December 6, 5 - 8 p.m.
Gold Bar Elementary School
Open House
December 7, 5 - 8 p.m.
Monroe High School
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