State agrees to fix 3 of Highway 9’s worst bottlenecks

Published 9:00 pm Sunday, August 20, 2006

Snohomish County and state transportation planners have reached agreement on how to fix three of the most-congested sections of Highway 9.

The state plans to spend $67 million widening the state route from Highway 96 to Marsh Road. More work is planned near 20th Street SE and from Lundeen Parkway to Highway 92.

At each location the highway will be widened from two lanes to four.

The funding comes from the 9.5-cent-a-gallon gas tax increase adopted by the state Legislature in 2005.

Design work on the first of the three widening projects has already started, but construction won’t start until 2008, said Rick Mitchell, the state Department of Transportation’s engineering manager for Snohomish and King counties.

The state will spend $270 million over the next 15 years to “transform Highway 9 from a rural road into a wider and safer modern highway,” Mitchell said.

Fast-paced growth in cities along Highway 9 combined with increased traffic from freight companies frustrated with congestion on I-5 have pushed the road to its limits, Mitchell said.

Snohomish County had discussions with the state over where to spend the widening money, said Steve Thomsen, the county’s public works director.

Targeting the money at the most congested intersections is key, he said.

The improvement to traffic flow “is going to be tremendous,” he said.

The state is also preparing to rebuild eight intersections along Highway 9, many of them occurring at the same locations as the widening. That work will cost $60 million and is also paid for through the 2005 gas tax hike.

“Each one of those locations is a major choke point,” Mitchell said. “What you’re going to see is a huge improvement in the amount of time people will have to wait to get through the signals.”

The south end of Highway 9 is also being widened from Highway 522 to Highway 524, work that is paid for by the state’s 2003 5-cent-a-gallon gas tax. The first segment is scheduled to open in 2008. Construction on a second nickel-package segment, from Highway 524 to 180th Street SE, starts in 2010.

Here’s a breakdown of the three widening and intersection projects paid for by the 2005 gas tax increase:

* Widen Highway 9 from Highway 96 to Marsh Road. Work includes adding double turn lanes and other intersection upgrades at Highway 9’s intersections with Highway 96 and Marsh Road. Construction starts spring 2008 and finishes in spring 2010. Cost is $29 million.

* Widening Highway 9 from S. Lake Stevens Way to 20th Street SE, a quarter-mile stretch.

Construction is scheduled to start spring 2008 and finish spring 2010. The cost is $11 million. The state is paying for the project but Snohomish County, which is already working on 20th Street, will do the work.

* Widening Highway 9 from Lundeen Parkway to Highway 92. Construction is scheduled to start in 2010 and finish in 2012. The cost is $32 million.

* Rebuilding Highway 9’s intersections at Highway 528, 84th Street NE and Highway 531. All three of these projects are scheduled to start in 2011 and finish in 2012. Together they will cost $26 million.

Reporter Lukas Velush: 425-339-3449 or lvelush@ heraldnet.com.