When Cathcart Way opened two years ago, traffic engineers expected the new road to instantly become a favorite way to get from I-5 to Highway 9.
Instead, relatively few people are using the four- and five-lane road for which the county paid nearly $25 million to extend 128th Street SE eastward to Highway 9.
So why is the road so lonely?
Highway 9 is so jammed with traffic that most Cathcart Way commuters – apparently on their way to and from Snohomish – would rather wend their way back and forth on Seattle Hill and Marsh roads than head straight to Highway 9.
That lack of traffic has left the road wide open for speeders.
“I’m just worried we’re going to have another fatality out there if people don’t slow down,” said deputy Rich Niebusch, a spokesman for the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department.
A tow truck driver on his way home from work was killed nearly two years ago when his pickup truck was hit by a speeding car. The car’s driver also died in the crash.
The straight-shot connector road starts as 128th Street SE at I-5 and changes names three more times before it gets to Highway 9. What doesn’t change is the speed limit – it’s 45 mph for the entire 7-mile route.
“It’s a very inviting road for people. It has great visibility and is wide,” Niebusch said.
The sheriff’s office receives numerous complaints about speeders, especially motorcyclists, he said.
“For some reason, on the weekends and after hours it has become popular with motorcyclists engaging in dangerous speeds,” Niebusch said.
Snohomish resident Skip Tile loves the new road but hates the speeding.
“The problem is the speed is set too high,” he said. “I’m driving 45 mph, and cars are speeding right around me.”
The road was built for cars to drive 45 mph to 50 mph, said Jim Bloodgood, the county’s traffic engineer.
He said the county first set the speed limit at 35 mph but raised it to 45 mph when it found that was the speed most traffic was going.
“If they’re traveling at 55, 60 mph, I don’t know (if that’s safe),” Bloodgood said. “Enforcement is warranted.”
The sheriff’s office is applying for a grant from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission to add extra patrols on Cathcart Way, Niebusch said. The money would pay for additional hours for patrols.
Already, the road is the second busiest enforced by the sheriff’s traffic unit, Niebusch said.
Bloodgood said about 6,000 to 8,000 cars travel down 1.4-mile-long Cathcart Way per day, far fewer than the 10,000 he expected on the day the road opened.
“I think we expected to be able to divert more traffic onto it,” he said. “Motorists are going to and from Snohomish or parts north using Seattle Hill Road and Marsh Road.”
Bloodgood said the road can handle as many as 30,000 cars per day, adding that he expects the road to carry close to that when Highway 9 is widened into Snohomish.
While the state Department of Transportation is currently widening Highway 9 near Highway 522, it doesn’t have the money to widen the road in the Snohomish area.
The gas tax hike approved by the Legislature earlier this year does set aside $133 million to improve several Highway 9 intersections, including Marsh Road, said Travis Phelps, a DOT spokesman.
The improvements are expected to reduce the lengthy backups currently found in the area. Some money is available to widen small sections of Highway 9 in the Snohomish area, but it is unclear whether widening will occur between Cathcart Way and Marsh Road.
Reporter Lukas Velush: 425-339-3449 or lvelush@ heraldnet.com.
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