LYNNWOOD — The roller coaster road. The washboard. The coffee spiller.
Whatever you call it, 36th Avenue W. has seen better days.
“That is the worst remaining arterial in Lynnwood,” City Engineer Jeff Elekes said.
The city plans to tear down and reconstruct 36th between Maple Road and 164th Street SW. The design phase is wrapping up, project manager Ngan Ha Yang said. Bidding for the work is expected to start in 2017 and construction in 2018.
Construction likely will take 18 months.
The road is a north-south feeder for 164th and I-5 and is lined with housing developments built in the past 30 years. More than 14,300 cars travel that stretch every day.
Lynnwood recently got word that the project will get a $3 million grant for construction through the Puget Sound Regional Council, as well as $772,000 from the federal government to buy property.
The estimated total for construction is $10 million. The remainder is expected to come from grants and city funds, Elekes said.
The plan calls for a “full roadway reconstruction all the way to the subgrade,” he said. The new road also will have sidewalks, bike lanes and bus stops, complete with bus turnouts.
Elekes also expects a new roundabout at 172nd Street SW — the second roundabout for Lynnwood — and a realigned intersection at 179th Street SW, which will get traffic lights in all directions for the first time.
The construction zone for the city is about one mile long. The next mile north is owned by Snohomish County and ends at Highway 99. The county also plans major road construction there at some point.
Eventually, the southern end of 36th will become a key route into Lynnwood’s City Center, an urban downtown area at 196th Street SW and I-5.
The work planned for 36th is one of the biggest transportation projects in the city in years, Elekes said. Its scope will be overshadowed, though, by the expected widening of 196th Street SW and the proposed construction of an I-5 overpass at Poplar Way.
The transportation situation in Lynnwood is improving, he said.
“It just requires patience, money and time,” he said.
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
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