Low-cost road work does ease congestion

Published 9:45 pm Sunday, December 6, 2009

Greg Raven of Granite Falls writes: The fix that was done earlier this year has not helped the congestion at 41st Street and I-5 northbound in Everett. The traffic light and carpool lane are a joke, the traffic bottles up right at the end of the onramp from 41st.

We need two lanes exiting onto the trestle to relieve the pressure from drivers trying to get over into the one lane going onto the trestle. The backup starts about 3:30 p.m. Opening up the third lane on the trestle did not help the congestion on I-5.

Bronlea Mishler, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation, responds: The U.S. 2 trestle project we completed earlier this year was one of the low-cost methods we frequently use to reduce congestion and improve traffic. It cost approximately $70,000 to open the shoulder of the eastbound trestle to traffic during peak travel times, which has reduced travel times and made trips more reliable. Prior to this project, it took between 12 and 14 minutes on average to travel between the I-5/41st Street interchange and the U.S. 2/Highway 204 interchange. It now takes an average of six minutes to make the same trip, and travel times are far more consistent.

Managing traffic and reducing congestion between the 41st Street interchange and the U.S. 2 interchange can be challenging due to the high volumes of traffic that enter and exit the freeway in a relatively short half-mile stretch. About 20 percent more traffic is added to northbound I-5 by drivers using the 41st Street onramp during the evening peak travel period. These drivers must change lanes to the left if not exiting to U.S. 2, while an even higher proportion of drivers (approximately 25 percent) are changing lanes to the right to exit to U.S. 2.

Ramp metering is one of the low-cost ways we try to combat congestion caused by this heavy weaving.

While the benefits of ramp metering may not always be apparent to drivers at the heaviest times, it’s important to consider the cumulative effect over the entire peak travel period. Some great benefits occur at the beginning of the peak travel period, where meters help to maintain a free flow of traffic on the mainline for as long as possible, decreasing travel times for all freeway users.

While another lane on the U.S. 2 exit could help to ease some congestion during the peak travel period, it is impractical as a near-term fix since the current ramp isn’t wide enough to accommodate two lanes. To add the extra lane width, complex engineering designs and heavy construction would be needed. A project of this scale is very costly and takes years to plan, design and implement.

Sign needs replacing

Junelle Erickson of Everett writes: I am concerned about a “no parking at any time” sign that gets ignored.

The location is approximately the 13300 block of southbound Highway 99, between a used car dealership and the entrance to a mobile home park.

There is a state highway sign at this location indicating the junction of Highway 525 ahead. Just below this sign is a badly faded “no parking at any time” sign which needs replacing. Also, the curb affected, between the entrance to the car lot and the mobile home park, is not painted to indicate this restriction.

When someone parks in this short stretch it inhibits right turns into the mobile home park from this parking-turning lane, forcing southbound vehicles to slow down when turning from the outside traffic lane.

With the speed in this area, rear-end collisions are possible when turning vehicles slow in the traffic lane to enter the mobile home park. This is a large park and has a lot of traffic in and out.

Exiting the park can also be affected as vehicles parked in this zone inhibit the sight line of oncoming southbound traffic. I once spoke to a person parked there. His reply was “I’ll only be a minute” as he went into the car dealership. That’s all it takes!

Bronlea Mishler of the Department of Transportation responds: In talking with some of our engineers, we discovered that, yes, this area is legitimately marked by the state as a no-parking zone. We recently sent a crew out to replace the sign.

Additionally, while we do mark the area as a no- parking zone, we typically don’t paint curbs to indicate parking restrictions. Enforcement is the responsibility of the Washington State Patrol.

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