For over 20 years, Bill Kusler has biked to work almost daily.
The ride is about 5 miles between his home in Snohomish and work in Lake Stevens at Skyline Elementary School.
His route winds on a lot of roads. Bickford Avenue, Sinclair Road and South Lake Stevens Road, Cavalero Road, 20th Street SE, 83rd Avenue SE through the neighborhoods and to the school off of 91st Avenue SE.
But at 66 years old, winter weather has curbed his appetite for two-wheeling it every day.
It’s also one reason he’s looking forward to a new road connection opening in Lake Stevens, and the sooner the better.
Kusler emailed The Daily Herald to find out when part of South Lake Stevens Road near the new Costco will open.
“This route will take a mile and a half off of my bike commute to work,” Kusler wrote.
The spur Kusler asked about is a new segment to connect the existing South Lake Stevens Road with a new traffic signal on 24th Street SE south of Costco.
Even though most of the road work is done, construction of a safety barrier on the outside of the sidewalks and retaining walls remains, Lake Stevens city engineer Kim Klinkers wrote in an email to The Herald.
Some of that work started this month. Once concrete is poured and cured, the road can open. It’s expected to take between six and seven weeks but depends on the weather, with city staff estimating the segment to open in mid-February, Klinkers wrote.
“This concrete barrier curb will provide the crash worthy barrier required to be able to open this road to the traveling public,” Klinkers wrote.
The area around the Costco has seen a lot of road work in recent years, including a new roundabout at Highway 9 and South Lake Stevens Road. The city built new roads 24th Street SE and 91st Avenue SE to improve traffic flow around the mega store.
Early traffic estimates showed around 800 vehicles during the evening peak.
By the time the new spur of South Lake Stevens Road opens, temperatures and weather won’t quite be the ideal cycling conditions for Kusler. At least sunset will be later, so hopefully he can resume more bike commute days safely soon.
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