Everett, Wash.
Published: Monday, June 8, 2009

Granite Falls bypass foe fears diesel fumes

The new route around Granite Falls will send trucks past three schools. Officials say the project is not a health risk.

By Bill Sheets
Herald Writer

 GRANITE FALLS -- Work on the long-awaited bypass road around this city could begin as soon as next month, but the project still has at least one vocal critic.

The road is expected to send more than 1,800 trucks near Granite Falls High School and two other schools every day.

This would put children in danger from exposure to diesel exhaust, says Joan Deigert, a retired nurse who lives outside town.

"I just think it's really egregiously callous of them not to consider the health and safety of the children as a primary factor in siting that roadway," said Deigert, 54. "Frankly, I'm outraged."

Diegert asked Gov. Chris Gregoire in a letter to revoke funding for the $32.6 million project. In the letter, she cited several studies about the health hazards of diesel exhaust.

The thoroughfare won't affect air quality around the high school and Monte Cristo and Mountain Way elementary schools, said Snohomish County officials, who are coordinating the project.

They say the road will be a big improvement over the current situation, with gravel trucks driving through the heart of town. Two schools are located along the currently used route.

The bypass road north of town also will have three roundabouts and no stoplights, so the exhaust won't accumulate, county public works director Steve Thomsen said.

The road is designed "so that traffic keeps moving," he said.

An environmental assessment in August 2007 concluded traffic would not significantly degrade air quality along the route. As a result, the study did not require a more detailed examination on air quality or potential health effects.

The road is being built to divert truck traffic away from downtown Granite Falls, where in 2005 more than 2,000 trucks passed through every day, according to the county. Many of the trucks are carrying gravel from rock quarries along the Mountain Loop Highway and stopping at traffic signals in town. That's caused noise and exhaust fumes and posed a danger to pedestrians.

The new road will consist of a two-lane, 2.1-mile road, stretching from Highway 92 west of Jordan Road to connect with Mountain Loop Highway north of Gun Club Road.

The project has been in the works for nearly 12 years. Nine other choices were considered and most were rejected based on their effects on the community and the environment, according to the environmental assessment.

The bypass got the final push it needed in March when it received $6 million in federal economic stimulus money.

The project is moving ahead, officials say. Work could begin in July and will likely take two years, said Crilly Ritz, a planner for the public works department.

The public was given opportunities to comment on the project at meetings and in writing, officials said.

Diegert said she was ill during the public comment period two years ago. Those who did comment were concerned about noise, traffic near the high school, the effect on wildlife and potential loss of business downtown, according to the environmental assessment.

"For the most part there was support," Thomsen said. Though Diegert does not live along the route of the new road, he said some who do are still not entirely on board, because of concerns for the environment or because they don't believe the county has offered them enough for their property.

"We're working with them and working out some kind of solution," Thomsen said.

The Granite Falls School District offered no objections in the environmental review, said Mike Sullivan, director of business and operations for the district.

The route will come within 50 feet of the northwest corner of the high school property, an area that includes a football field and running track, and 430 feet from the nearest building. It will cross within 120 feet of one of the buildings at Mountain Way and 900 feet from Monte Cristo Elementary.

By contrast, Highway 92 runs right in front of Crossroads Alternative High School -- formerly the town's main high school -- and Granite Falls Middle School, Sullivan said.

"We'd still prefer to have the bypass farther away from our schools, but it's better than having (trucks) driving right in front of them," he said.

The roadway will be down a slope from the two elementary schools and, in the case of Mountain Way, will be separated by fencing and noise walls.

Diegert isn't persuaded. She said noise walls and the slope won't do any good because "the pollutants go up in the air," she said.

Having the road near playfields is just as bad or worse as the two schools sitting next to Highway 92, Deigert said.

"So instead we locate (the road) next to three other schools," she said. "The logic there fails me."

Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439, sheets@heraldnet.com.
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA