Granite Falls bypass worries some truckers

Published 11:28 pm Sunday, January 17, 2010

GRANITE FALLS — A new road under construction around this town was conceived with trucks in mind. Now, some truckers say the first roundabout built as part of the project won’t work for their longer rigs.

Two truckers say the roundabout at the intersection of the new road and 100th Street NE, the first of three planned on the route, won’t handle some of their trailers. Also, a gravel pit owner is unsure if the trucks that serve his operation will be able to make it through.

“There’s no way it’s going to work,” said Dale Girven of Getchell, co-owner of Pacific Logging, which transports logging equipment through the area. “If it’s a bypass for trucks, you’d think they’d make it for larger trucks.”

“They just created an obstacle course,” said Greg Vandeventer of Granite Falls, who works for Ness Cranes of Seattle hauling heavy equipment with occasional deliveries through Granite Falls.

Officials with Snohomish County, which designed the $28.7 million project, say both the roundabout design and the first roundabout itself have passed tests using trucks.

They say for most of the trucks expected to use the route, the roundabouts will work fine.

Still, the county is investigating whether the roundabouts will work for the larger truck-and-trailer rigs.

“We’ve having our consultant take a look at these extra long trucks,” county engineer Owen Carter said.

The new road was inspired by a desire to lessen truck traffic through 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. This generates noise and exhaust and poses 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. In addition to the roundabout already built, others are planned for the new road’s intersections with Highway 92 and Jordan Road. A small portion of the road has been built, and the entire route is expected to be finished next fall.

Truckers say if the roundabouts are too small, they’ll have avoid them and drive through town again, contributing to the same conditions that led to construction of the alternate route to being with.

The roundabout was designed for trucks up to 73 ½ feet, which is the largest vehicle in the state Department of Transportation manual that provides guidelines for designing roadways, Carter said. Most of the rock-hauling trucks are in that range, county officials said.

The truck-trailer combo tested in the roundabout recently was about 75 feet long, Carter said. Girven said some of his flatbed trailers, called “lowboys,” reach up to 115 feet long.

Rob Hild, co-owner of Menzel Lake Gravel, a gravel supplier outside Granite Falls, said most of the 75-foot trucks that haul out of his pit have four axles per trailer, while those used in the county test have three.

“They don’t maneuver as easy as a three-axle trailer,” Hild said.

The roundabouts are designed with an 8-foot-wide, slightly raised brick apron in the middle that allows trucks to drive over it if necessary. The lane of traffic through the roundabout is about 23 feet wide.

Even with the apron, there’s not enough room to get a really long rig through, truckers said.

The curved entrances to the roundabout are about 14 feet wide and surrounded by curbing, to discourage speeding, officials say. The speed limit on the bypass road will be 45 mph, slowing to 15 or 20 mph at the roundabouts.

“Basically it’s just too tight coming into it,” Girven said. While he believes he could get his cab through, “my trailer’s still back in that narrow approach, and the trailer’s going to be going up over the curbs,” he said, adding that his loads run up to 200,000 pounds.

Girven said if the roundabout’s center circle, currently 90 feet in diameter, were reduced in size by half, it would essentially create another lane inside the roundabout and solve the problem.

Carter said the center circle will be landscaped. If it’s shrunk down or the approaches are widened, it would change the characteristics of the roundabout, compromising safety, he said.

“I’m afraid that speeds may increase through it,” Carter said.

Last month, a county employee drove the 75-foot truck and trailer through the roundabout, making all the possible turns, county traffic engineer Jim Bloodgood said. The truck went up onto the center apron, per design, and had no trouble in the approaches or around the edge, Bloodgood said.

“The roundabout’s going to work fine. They’re not going to be able to go 40 mph,” Bloodgood said.

The truckers remain skeptical.

“I’d have to see something fully stretched out going through there to believe it,” Vandeventer said. “If they’re not going to change it, they’re going to have problems with it.”

Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439, sheets@heraldnet.com.