I-5 paving slated for north of Everett

Published 12:41 pm Monday, May 9, 2011

Ray Brown of Marysville writes: The ruts in the center lane of southbound I-5 between Marysville and Everett are past annoying and approaching dangerous.

When the roadway is dry you can feel these ruts tug and pull at your tires. When wet, these ruts fill with water and make changing lanes ve

ry hazardous, not to mention the rooster tail of water it throws out, blinding drivers in the inside and outside lanes. When are the southbound lanes of I-5 going to get repaved?

Bronlea Mishler, spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation, responds: We’ve been keeping an eye on all those lumps and bumps along southbound I-5 between Marysville and Everett – and we’re only a few weeks away from starting work on a project to repave that four-mile section of freeway.

Crews hope to begin work in June to grind down and repave the road. We’ll post construction details and a link to scheduled work on our project website at http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/I5/SnohomishEbey/.

Loud mufflers annoying

Bill Colberg of Mountlake Terrace writes: Are the loud, aftermarket mufflers that are popular with the younger set legal? “Jake brakes” on large trucks are illegal in many residential areas, but these mufflers make as much or more noise than a truck equipped with a Jake brake.

Our house is on a busy, level residential street with a speed limit of 30 mph. These cars drive by our house at all hours of the day or night and for some reason quite a few drive in a lower gear then necessary, revving up the engine and making for a very loud racket. You can hear them for more than a block before our home to a block or more after they pass by.

It’s almost as if the loud mufflers encourage them to drive in a lower gear just so they can hear their loud mufflers.

If these cars were equipped with sound suppressing mufflers instead of a straight pipe with an echo chamber it would sure make living on a busy street tolerable.

Mountlake Terrace police Sgt. Kevin Pickard responds:
This is a violation. A vehicle with an aftermarket exhaust system that amplifies or increases the noise louder than the muffler that was originally installed on the vehicle is in violation of state law (RCW 46.37.390.3).

The Mountlake Terrace Police Department aggressively enforces this law and with the help from our citizens we will continue our enforcement efforts.

The first offense carries a fine of $134. A second violation by the same person in the same year brings a fine of $175, and a third infraction in that year brings a fine of $216.

Thank you for your inquiry and I look forward to assisting you and the citizens of Mountlake Terrace in the future.

Limiting left turns

Emily Schenk of Everett writes: Is it possible to make a left turn onto Everett Avenue from Colby Avenue illegal from around 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.? Colby is a nightmare going north at that time because of drivers trying to make a left turn.

Sometimes only three or four cars get through that green light even though it’s pretty long.

A sign would be relatively cheap to put up and cure a lot of frustration. Any driver needing to go down Everett Avenue could just turn left before at California or go up one block.

Dongho Chang, traffic engineer for the city of Everett, responds: This is a reasonable suggestion for improving traffic flow on Colby during the evening peak. We will collect traffic counts to determine the effect that the turning restriction would have on surrounding streets.

We will discuss the idea with the downtown business association and other groups if the traffic counts and study support the left-turn restriction.

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