EVERETT – When Jean Carrillo first heard the city was planning to widen E. Marine View Drive, she was skeptical. She thought the plan would worsen the street’s speeding problem and make the road less attractive.
After city engineer Ryan Sass unveiled the final plan at Wednesday’s City Council meeting, Carrillo said she was pleasantly surprised.
“They truly did listen to us, item by item and tree by tree,” said Carrillo, who sat on a neighborhood advisory committee for the project.
The widening is necessary to accommodate increased traffic, Sass said.
E. Marine View Drive is now one lane in each direction. The city will widen it to two lanes in each direction from 16th Street to Summit Avenue, which is about a block north of the I-5 interchange.
North of 16th Street to Highway 529 – where traffic is not as heavy – the street will be one lane in each direction, with either a center turn lane or a median. Trees or shrubs will be planted in the median.
In addition, a stoplight will be added to the intersection of E. Marine Drive and Walnut Street.
Construction is scheduled to begin in summer 2006. The federal government will pay for most of the $8.15 million project, with the city and state expected to chip in about $1.2 million.
Councilwoman Marian Krell said she is relieved that the final plan includes landscaping and traffic bulbs, or curbs that intermittently jut out into the street to slow down traffic.
“The final product is much better than what we looked at in the past,” she said. “It was basically a highway through the middle of a neighborhood. This is more neighborhood-friendly. It will look more like a neighborhood street rather than the big ugly truck route that it is now.”
Carrillo said the redesign will help the neighborhood’s image.
“When people drive through this neighborhood, they’ll think, ‘Oh, people live here. It looks cared for,’” she said.
Tim Dean, chairman of the Delta Neighborhood Association, agreed with city officials that the widening was necessary.
“It’s inevitable,” he said. “The growth is going to be there. This accommodates citizens who live on that street, and it accommodates commerce.”
Reporter David Olson: 425-339-3452 or dolson@heraldnet.com.
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