Lloyd Brodniak of Everett writes: When you drive northbound on 19th Avenue SE (Highway 527) heading toward the Boeing Freeway and the I-5 onramp, you come to a traffic signal at El Capitan Way that connects to Eastmont. There is also an offramp that comes from northbound I-5. It is a very busy intersection. From time to time the northbound light will be green for only 10 seconds, leaving a long line of frustrated drivers. I have even seen this happen twice in a row. Is this caused by a faulty sensor or a worn out relay?
Bronlea Mishler, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation, responds: Both our signal operations engineer and our maintenance crews visited the intersection a few times in the past month to see if the signal was working properly. Neither crew found any problems with the signal or the sensor that would cause it to have such a short green light. We’ll continue to monitor this intersection to make sure the signal continues to work properly.
Bill Lider of Lynnwood writes: Recently, Snohomish County public works crews repaved (chip-sealed) 212th Street SW just south of Halls Lake, from 63rd Avenue W. to 52nd Avenue W. This east-west section of road is bounded by Lynnwood to the north and Mountlake Terrace to the south. Work also included replacing catch basin grates, restriping, raised pavement markers, and a new bike lane.
Looking at the county property maps, the boundary between Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace runs east-west along the centerline of 212th Street SW in this area, with no county right-of-way shown.
The work looks good, but why are county taxpayers paying to maintain these cities’ streets? Diverting county crews to work on city projects also diverts them from maintaining the streets in the unincorporated sections of the county.
County engineer Owen Carter responds: This section of 212th Street SW is within Mountlake Terrace city limits. The city hired a contractor to do the construction and contracted with Snohomish County to apply the pavement markings. The contract agreement requires the city to reimburse the county for all its costs associated with performing the work.
Ellie Erickson writes: As a regular customer of the Chevron station on the northwest corner of Everett Avenue and Broadway I cannot tell you how many times I’ve seen near misses and actual accidents at the station’s exit onto Everett Avenue.
I’m wondering if a “right turn only” sign could be posted at the driveway with a raised curb in the street that prevents turns to the left, similar to the exit of Lowe’s hardware onto Pacific Avenue.
Dongho Chang, traffic engineer for the city of Everett, responds: According to police collision records the driveway appears to be working safely. There has been only one collision related to the Chevron driveway in the past 10 years.
I did visit the gas station several times during the day and found the driveway to be working safely. There is good visibility from the driveway to see the approaching traffic. The station’s manager said she was not aware of any recent driveway-related collisions. I will review the most recent collision records when they become available for this year to see if there is any change in the collision trend at the driveway.
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