TRAFFIC & TRANSPORTATION
Q: Where are we going?
A: Nowhere. Fast.

Is U.S. Rt. 2 a Highway of Death?

Lynnwood during Rush Hour?

No -- just another Sunday afternoon at Sultan Basin Road and Route 2.
It will get worse, far worse, before it gets better, with no solution in sight.

Highway 2 Safety Coalition Page

LOCAL & SNOHOMISH COUNTY:

Info on Regional Projects on Rt. 2 (generally)

CHANGING LANES (In Monroe)... Proposed traffic revisions to Route 2 in Monroe (in PowerPoint and Acrobat), and (previous) a letter from WSDOT traffic engineer Amir Ahmadi on this project (Word, Acrobat)

What is the Route 2 Safety Coalition?
Read report of a 2-21-02 Coalition meeting, trying to revitalize the Coalition (also see our "Highway 2 Safety Coalition" page)

5th Street Signalization page

Sultan Basin Road & Rt. 2 Intersection (A new alignment? Read the grant application)

2-22-02 Meeting of ESCCC with Secty. of Transportation Doug MacDonald

April, 2001 Letter from Rt. 2 Safety Coalition to Congressman Rick Larsen

Comments from WSDOT about Sultan Industrial Park (in Acrobat)

Comment letter from WSDOT on Traffic Impacts - 2001-2003 WSDOT-Funded Projects & Improvements - WSDOT Projects at risk

LOCAL HIGHWAY ACCIDENT DATA
How many accidents have there been in the last 5 years between Snohomish, Monroe and Gold Bar?

SULTAN'S 6-YR. ROAD PLANS:


NEW CARS COMING FROM DEVELOPMENTS IN SULTAN
(How many cars will be added to our roads -- just from us -- not to mention Gold Bar, et al?)
A STUDY OF DEVELOPER TRAFFIC IMPACT FEES: What is the impact of local development and growth on our roads? (Check out our Impact Fee page)

A GRAPH THAT WILL SCARE YOU SILLY (What is our current build-out capacity on the Sultan Basin Road at current zoning? Taken from a June, 1999 Earth Tech Build-out study.)

Travelers Info & Visitor Center

GENERAL INFO:

Traffic Impacts Page (includes traffic counts, etc.)

NEWS ARTICLES OF INTEREST

WSDOT home page

Seattle Times': More Gridlock? This is only our opinion, but it seems that Governor Locke's suggested relaxation of DOE permits flies in the face of his gridlock and salmon preservation issues. What the governor is recommending here is: More development = More gridlock = Less Accountability from DOE and WSDOT.
TRANSPORTATION: Will it be Gridlock? Or Free-wheelin'?
Seattle Times' article about Route 2, featuring an interview with Sultan Police Chief Walser, Co-chair of the Highway 2 Safety Coalition

STATEWIDE:

 
STORIES/UPDATES/LINKS: (in 2003, when the Herald went to pay-for-archives, we lost all links on our website, except those less than 30 days old, but we retained the headlines to allow visitors to search the archives themselves.)

Seattle Times: Traffic Woes bring counties together, but...
Also: Study may lead to easing of development restrictions
Will it be Gridlock? Or Free-wheelin'?
Seattle Times' article about Route 2, featuring an interview with Sultan Police Chief Walser, Co-chair of the Route 2 Safety Coalition
Cities Band Together for Transportation
"Highway of Death"
"Surveying on Rt. 2
 "How do you spell 'Relief'?"
Monroe Bypass; How Soon are REAL Improvements to SR 2 scheduled?
Previous stories re Route 2

12/01: Redmond Ridge's Traffic Woes Just Beginning (a planner's "primer" for what NOT to do.)
WHEN WILL WE SEE SOME ROADWAY RELIEF?

The Route 2 four-lane improvement is essentially "pie in the sky" and will not happen "for years, if at all," according to a traffic development engineer I spoke with January 3, 2001 (he requested that I not use his name, since this was largely his opinion, although it is based on current reports, trends and years of previous experience). However, he was kind enough to send me some information on this subject, and I'd like to pass it along to you. This is a vital subject to us, considering the already over-loaded condition of Hwy. 2, with further future impacts such as the "industrial area," further residential growth, and, of course, the proposed gravel facility.

The "Sunshine" Report, which is WSDOT's 6-year plan on projects that may come to fruition, reports the following projects and their status. (By the way, the mileage post figures given represent the area of impact/construction activity, and are those little vertical white and green signposts by the side of the road at one-mile intervals.) The "20-Year Financially Constrained Plan," however, which might as well be in a "galaxy far, far away", i.e., "pie in the sky," indicates the strategy is to: "Widen to four lanes with a median-divided highway to Sultan (MP 21.42) including access purchase, and widen to 4 lanes without median through Sultan eastward [to mp 24.22]" at a cost of $38 to $49.60 million. Our WSDOT engineer friend said this "20-year" plan is mostly fantasy.

Overlay (repaving) through Sultan, on RT 2 just west of Sultan Basin Road eastward, was done in the summer of 2001. The cost of this project is $582,000.

Fifth Street Traffic Light: This project is slated to cost $0.5 million. I'm sure it will not be done simultaneously with the overlay, since that is not the way the government does things. The WSDOT contact listed in their Northwest Region report is Ed Conyers 206-440-4736. It is our understanding that this project is imminent.

Note: Why is Fifth Street getting a traffic light and not Sultan Basin Road? The most current annual traffic report published by WSDOT (released in Spring, 2001) indicated the following Average Daily Traffic Volume unit trips for the following intersections:
25,000 per day for the 522/Route 2 intersection in Monroe (eastbound before the ramp)
23,000 per day for the MainStreet/Route 2 connection in Monroe (eastbound, just before Old Owen Road)
17,000 to 20,000 per day for the area between 4th & 6th streets in Sultan
23,000 per day for the SBR/Cemetery Road Route 2 intersection.

Neither the state or the city has sufficient motivation or funds to resolve the problems at this intersection. They will, of course, blame inadequate funding on I-695. But our government has been spending money for years on what THEY wanted and not what WE wanted -- for instance, adequate roads and rapid transit. Put simply: WSDOT has been eating their desert for years, and now they want US to eat the main course, which tastes suspicously like liver.

Monroe Bypass (design phase only): The entry in the Sunshine report states that this $1.5 million expenditure is to "Prepare design report and environmental for Monroe Bypass." This covers the area contained between mileage markers (those little green vertical signs with numbers on them next to the highway at one-mile intervals) 14.25 and 16.12. The money thus far expended is $1,043,676.48 with an authorized cap of $1.5 million. The last entry shown in the status line is "Record of Decision June 01 1999P." Not sure that that means, except it's undoubtedly been buried under tons of BS, or "Bureacratic SNAFUs". SEE LINK TO RTID (Regional Transportation Improvement District) AT TOP OF THIS PAGE for current status.)

HISTORICAL STORIES ABOUT HIGHWAY 2 (Gain a perspective)
(note: In early 2003, The Herald, from which most of these stories oiginated, began charging for archived articles. Therefore, most of the links to our stories will not work. But we have left the headlines listed as a guide by which one can search the archives, and to give our readers a glimpse of the big picture: That Route 2 is more than a recent problem.)

 New Traffic Light Doesn't Stop Complaints
Old Owen Road Stoplight Installed
Paradise Lost Along Route 2?
The Road More Traveled
Route 2 Coalition Gains Speed
Route 2 Safety Coalition's lobbying efforts get started
Chief Walser Loses Long-time employee and friend, as Route 2 adds to death toll

PROBLEM INTERSECTIONS (Safety):

Problem intersection at Willow & Gohr Road/First Street?

Southeast Intersection of Willow and Gohr
Why do we need to review traffic control at this intersection? This view is what a driver sees when stopped on Willow Avenue at Gohr Road/1st Street, looking southward. Actually, the photo does not do the limited sightline justice. If everyone moving in a northerly direction on Gohr Road/1st Street were only traveling about 20 mph, this might not be a problem. What makes any left turn from Willow difficult is that the angle on Gohr/1st Street runs east-southeast rather than a in "true" southerly direction. This creates a very short sightline. Combined with the obstruction caused by the presence of the fence, it makes it difficult for folks on Willow to turn left. When someone is going 35 mph or more (usually the latter) on Gohr/1st, it is difficult for drivers stopped at Willow Avenue to make a southbound turn safely onto Gohr/1st. By the time a driver becomes aware of a northbound car on Gohr/1st, they are already well into the intersection. There WILL be an accident soon. Let's just hope it's not an inertia-heavy gravel truck! (UPDATE ON THIS STORY: A 4-way stop intersectin improvement was installed here in mid-2003, solving the problem.)

DOT SURVEYING ON ROUTE 2 IN SULTAN:
What's the Point?

On Friday, December 1, 2000, we spoke with Pat McCormick (206-368-4493), DOT's person in charge of this project in DOT's Bothell office, and asked the purpose of the DOT survey crews along Route 2 over the last couple of weeks. He said that someone (a department or persons unknown to him) at DOT recommended and approved that a "Pavement Life" resurfacing take place along Route 2. When they made that recommendation, they also discovered that there was no "as built" survey information on file -- i.e., no electronic records -- in order to allow them to send out for bids. He said this repaving would take place next Spring, even though the roadway through Route 2 was essentially repaved last year with the installation of the Owens Road stoplight and the left-turn lane enhancements. He also said this "Pavement Life" resurfacing is required due to the anticipated long delay that will exist until and if such time that any actual structural improvements - such as an enhancement to four lanes or any Sultan Basin Road rechannelization -- will occur in this section, and that person(s) at the DOT are concerned that the pavement might disintegrate before those improvements can be made. Is that enough information for you? Or is it more than you wish to know? If you wish to know more details regarding the long-term projects planned for Route 2, you can call DOT"s Snohomish County Project Manager, Steve Miller, at 206-440-4676. He's Mr. McCormick's boss. (BACK TO TOP)