Date:
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Contact:
Ted Trepanier, State Traffic Engineer 360-705-7280
Stan Suchan, Acting Communications Director 360-705-7076
One of the nation’s largest highway construction programs underway to enhance safety and relieve congestion
The Puget Sound region’s economy and population continue to grow–and along with them traffic delays–according to the Washington State Department of Transportation’s Annual Congestion Report released today. To relieve congestion and enhance safety in the central Puget Sound region, more than $1.5 billion of design and construction work has been completed and projects totaling an unprecedented $6.5 billion will be completed in the next decade.
“Employment and population continue to grow in the Puget Sound region,” said Secretary of Transportation Paula Hammond. “That translates to more families going to jobs, schools and shopping; more trucks and deliveries and more traffic.”
From 2004 to 2006, the Puget Sound region gained 91,000 new jobs and 107,000 new residents. Detailed analysis of the 38 most congested highway routes in the region shows that commuters are traveling at slightly slower speeds and spending longer periods of time in traffic. Overall, average travel times decreased on three routes, remained constant on three routes and increased on 32 routes. Increases ranged from one minute to seven minutes over the two-year period. The commute with the largest increase in average travel time, seven minutes, was morning rush hours on I-405 from Tukwila to Bellevue. Seattle is faring better than other major urban areas.
“Seattle ranked 9th on our most congested cities list in 2000; it’s down to 19th in 2005 thanks to a combination of improvement strategies,” said Tim Lomax, co-author of the Texas Transportation Institute’s 2007 Urban Mobility Report. “Congestion in the Seattle region is about the same as in 2000, but most of the cities similar to yours have gotten worse.”
Safety matters: more than half of urban congestion due to traffic incidents
“You can’t just build your way out of congestion,” stated Hammond. “More than half of urban congestion is due to collisions, stalls and other traffic incidents. We’re working to clear traffic incidents as quickly as possible and we’re working to help reduce the risk of collisions, which can have a tragic human cost and can gridlock traffic for hours. We are also working to preserve our aging highways and bridges not only because they are a safety risk, but also because they could cause unprecedented congestion if they fail. And we are making great progress on one of the largest highway construction programs in the nation.”
“In addition to highway construction, we’re working to make the most of our existing lanes” said Ted Trepanier, WSDOT’s state traffic engineer. “In 2006, our 55 roving Incident Response teams helped clear roads and keep traffic moving by assisting nearly 60,000 drivers. On State Route 532 in Stanwood we were able to reduce the travel time for each trip up to six minutes by adjusting and synchronizing traffic signals.”
Other techniques WSDOT uses to help keep traffic moving include ramp meters; express lanes; HOV lanes; traffic cameras; travel times, emergency information on electronic message signs and support for vanpools and employers who encourage workers to ride the bus, carpool, vanpool, work from home and flex their work schedules. WSDOT works closely with local transit agencies, counties and cities to coordinate efforts to enhance safety and fight congestion.
$6.5 billion of construction ahead to enhance safety and relieve congestion in central Puget Sound region
More than $1.5 billion of design and construction work has been completed to relieve congestion and enhance safety in the central Puget Sound region. Examples of completed projects include:
- SR 18: Widened SR 18 to four lanes, doubled the highway’s capacity and reduced travel times by up to 20 minutes in the westbound direction, while decreasing collision rates and injuries by 50 percent.
- I-405: Recently added a lane in each direction through Kirkland and improved the NE 116th Street interchange.
- I-5: Built new HOV lanes between Federal Way and Tacoma, chopped more than 5 minutes from the evening commute for people in HOV lanes.
- SR 527: Added a lane in each direction and improved intersections on the Bothell-Everett highway between Mill Creek and Everett.
In addition, WSDOT built the new Tacoma Narrows Bridge and boosted morning rush hour traffic speeds from less than 25 mph to consistently at or near the 55 mph speed limit.
WSDOT will deliver more than $6.5 billion of construction projects in the central Puget Sound region over the next ten years. Projects currently under construction include:
- An additional 58 miles of HOV lanes, which will expand the 200 miles of HOV lanes built since the 1970s.
- Major freeway widening projects on I-5 in Everett and Tacoma and I-405 in Renton and Bellevue.
- The first of the Alaskan Way Viaduct Moving Forward projects, which will replace or repair about half of the seismically vulnerable structure.
WSDOT estimated potential time savings on some of the most congested Puget Sound region routes when all of the projects in the 2003 Nickel and 2005 Transportation Partnership funding packages are completed. The agency found that estimated annual time savings totaled nearly 15 million hours—almost five hours of time stuck in traffic returned to each family member in urban areas.
The 2007 Annual Congestion Report (pdf 3.3 mb), the latest Gray Notebook (WSDOT’s quarterly performance report), lists of WSDOT construction projects, information about Incident Response teams and other information can be found at www.wsdot.wa.gov.
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