Looking east from the Highway 9 overpass over U.S. 2 on Tuesday afternoon in Snohomish. Median barriers are planned later. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)

Looking east from the Highway 9 overpass over U.S. 2 on Tuesday afternoon in Snohomish. Median barriers are planned later. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)

State adding medians to US 2 between Snohomish and Monroe

Median barriers will follow in a separate project next year.

SNOHOMISH — The state plans to spend $18.9 million on work starting this year on U.S. 2 between Snohomish and Monroe.

The project includes new paving and wider medians to separate the eastbound and westbound lanes.

The new medians will measure between 4 and 6 feet wide, and run from Bickford Avenue to Fryelands Boulevard, according to the state Department of Transportation. They will feature rumble strips, which are meant to alert drivers who are drifting.

The addition of physical median barriers is a separate project that isn’t on tap until 2020. And don’t forget about the trestle re-paving. Those closures aren’t over, either.

This stage of work also affects the road after East Main Street. That area will get a new two-foot-wide median until just past Monroe. Rumble strips will take up much of that space.

To make room for the medians, “we are narrowing the lanes from 12 feet to 11, and some of the shoulders will be slightly narrower,” said Frances Fedoriska, an agency spokeswoman.

“It’s a lot of work on U.S. 2, but it’s necessary work,” she said. “The population is growing by leaps and bounds, and we need to make sure that U.S. 2 is in a state of good repair to handle the excess traffic.”

Looking west from the Highway 9 overpass over U.S. 2 on Tuesday afternoon in Snohomish. Median work is scheduled this year. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)

Looking west from the Highway 9 overpass over U.S. 2 on Tuesday afternoon in Snohomish. Median work is scheduled this year. (Kevin Clark / The Herald)

The median widths will vary in part because of the way the highway was built into the landscape.

“No shoulder will be less than 4 feet,” Fedoriska said, adding, “It’s a game of inches.”

The work also will bring new expansion joints for the 40-year-old Pilchuck River bridge, which will remain open but may see lane closures, and sidewalk improvements at intersections between Fryelands and the fairgrounds.

Median barriers

The later project, with median barriers, may draw more attention. Physical barriers are expected to be installed for two miles from Bickford Avenue almost to the Pilchuck River bridge.

The barriers would represent a major victory for local advocates who for years have brought attention to problems on U.S. 2 between Everett and Stevens Pass. They have been pushing for barriers made of concrete. However, the design plans are still pending and need to account for safety and environmental factors, such as drainage, Fedoriska said.

“Our barrier selection process could also include crash tests, and that requires a few months,” she said. “We’re not taking this barrier selection lightly.”

Roughly 40,000 drivers travel U.S. 2 between Snohomish and Monroe every day, according to the state, and the road is worse for the wear. Local traffic safety advocates, such as the U.S. 2 Safety Coalition, long have said that the area has too many head-on, crossover collisions leading to deaths and serious injuries.

Many of the same folks also are involved in the efforts to revamp Highway 522.

Trestle closures

Meanwhile, on U.S. 2 west of Bickford toward Everett, questions remain about the 2018 repaving efforts that stalled out due to bad weather.

Yep, those trestle closures. The eastbound lanes are done, but not westbound.

The state needs two more weekends to wrap up, mainly focusing on “the far west end closest to the I-5 interchange,” Fedoriska said.

That $11.6 million project started this past April. The weather-dependent work is scheduled to resume this spring.

“We don’t have dates,” she said. “The project is in a winter hold right now.”

Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @rikkiking.

Talk to us

More in Local News

This photo provided by OceanGate Expeditions shows a submersible vessel named Titan used to visit the wreckage site of the Titanic. In a race against the clock on the high seas, an expanding international armada of ships and airplanes searched Tuesday, June 20, 2023, for the submersible that vanished in the North Atlantic while taking five people down to the wreck of the Titanic. (OceanGate Expeditions via AP)
A new movie based on OceanGate’s Titan submersible tragedy is in the works: ‘Salvaged’

MindRiot announced the film, a fictional project titled “Salvaged,” on Friday.

Craig Hess (Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office)
Sultan’s new police chief has 22 years in law enforcement

Craig Hess was sworn in Sep. 14. The Long Island-born cop was a first-responder on 9/11. He also served as Gold Bar police chief.

Cars move across Edgewater Bridge toward Everett on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, in Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Edgewater Bridge redo linking Everett, Mukilteo delayed until mid-2024

The project, now with an estimated cost of $27 million, will detour West Mukilteo Boulevard foot and car traffic for a year.

Lynn Deeken, the Dean of Arts, Learning Resources & Pathways at EvCC, addresses a large gathering during the ribbon cutting ceremony of the new Cascade Learning Center on Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023, at Everett Community College in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
New EvCC learning resource center opens to students, public

Planners of the Everett Community College building hope it will encourage students to use on-campus tutoring resources.

Everett Police Chief Dan Templeman announces his retirement after 31 years of service at the Everett City Council meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Everett police chief to retire at the end of October

Chief Dan Templeman announced his retirement at Wednesday’s City Council meeting. He has been chief for nine years.

Boeing employees watch the KC-46 Pegasus delivery event  from the air stairs at Boeing on Thursday, Jan. 24, 2019 in Everett, Wa. (Andy Bronson / The Herald)
Boeing’s iconic Everett factory tour to resume in October

After a three-year hiatus, tours of the Boeing Company’s enormous jet assembly plant are back at Paine Field.

A memorial for a 15-year-old shot and killed last week is set up at a bus stop along Harrison Road on Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Teen boy identified in fatal shooting at Everett bus stop

Bryan Tamayo-Franco, 15, was shot at a Hardeson Road bus stop earlier this month. Police arrested two suspects.

A memorial for a 15-year-old shot and killed last week is set up at a bus stop along Harrison Road on Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2023, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Rival gang members charged with killing Everett boy, 15, at bus stop

The two suspects are accused of premeditated first-degree murder in the death of Bryan Tamayo-Franco, 15.

Logo for news use featuring the municipality of Snohomish in Snohomish County, Washington. 220118
Witnesses contradict gunman’s account of killing Monroe prison officer

Dylan Picard, 22, was driving on South Machias Road when Dan Spaeth approached his car to slow it down to avoid hitting a deer.

Most Read