MARYSVILLE – In January, residents of traffic-choked Lakewood were told a new right-turn lane onto southbound I-5 would be carved out to relieve gridlock on 172nd Street NE.
The lane would be installed by early May, Marysville city officials said. It’s now July, the lane isn’t there and traffic is still terrible.
“I am disgusted,” said JoAnn DeLazzari, who lives in the Crystal Tree Village mobile home park. The park, at 16600 25th Ave NE, shares one bottlenecked outlet onto 172nd with another housing complex and several new stores, including Costco and Target.
The developer of the shopping center where the stores are located, Powell Development Company of Kirkland, is responsible for getting the lane built, city officials said. The company paid $2.1 million in development fees to Marysville for the project, with the $50,000 cost of the turn lane to come from this pot.
“We are getting very impatient on this,” Marysville city administrator Mary Swenson said. “We’re putting the pressure on.”
An official with Powell did not return a phone call from The Herald. A company hired by the developer to create the lane, Stripe Rite of Woodinville, just recently turned in its final permit applications to the state as required, Marysville city engineer Kevin Nielsen said.
If these are approved as expected, the lane could be built by early August, Nielsen said.
Nielsen said he believes the delay was caused by the developer trying to plan the lane to coincide with other improvements. These include a recently completed widening of the outlet street, 27th Avenue NE, to four lanes.
About 300 neighbors – plus shoppers and store employees – share the outlet, which empties onto 172nd less than a quarter of a mile west of the freeway.
When eastbound drivers on 172nd stop at a red light at I-5, they stop drivers headed for southbound I-5 from scooting onto the onramp, keeping traffic backed up all the way to 27th and beyond, residents say.
DeLazzari, 59, said an ambulance carrying a neighbor recently had trouble getting out onto 172nd. Other drivers had to zigzag to allow the ambulance to pass, she said.
The man with the medical condition survived, she said, but she’s worried others might not.
“I am ready now to write the governor,” she said.
City officials are studying other fixes, such as creating an outlet to the south by building a bridge over I-5 at Twin Lakes Boulevard and 156th Street NE.
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.
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