Traffic woes too big for Monroe

MONROE — Fixing Monroe’s traffic problems needs an initiative and help from the state, state leaders said Tuesday.

State lawmakers who are in charge of transportation pro­jects along with transportation officials dropped by Monroe City Hall to learn about the city’s effort to ease its traffic woes and how the state could help solve the problem.

“Transportation is a big issue for us,” said Hiller West, the city’s community development director.

The city spent 18 months and $165,000 creating a transportation plan to address its notorious traffic problems. The plan, released earlier this year, lists 43 projects — costing more than $40 million — that the city aims to tackle over the next 23 years. As the city of 16,000 people continues to grow and a new shopping center is built along U.S. 2, Monroe struggles to keep its roads untangled.

Traffic often gets congested on U.S. 2 through Monroe. That makes it difficult for the city to grow successfully, Sen. Val Stevens, R-Arlington, said.

The state has studied a U.S. 2 bypass around the north side of Monroe for years. It’s time to build one to improve traffic in the area, Stevens said.

“Let’s start by building the Monroe bypass,” she said. “I don’t want to study it again.”

The state bought most of the right-of-way needed for the bypass decades ago, but it has never built it. Now a portion of the money needed for the project is included in a list of transportation projects proposed by a regional tax district. Voters in Snohomish, King and Pierce counties are set to decide on the road-and-transit package on Nov. 6.

Tuesday’s meeting, attended by about 50 people, took place a week after Gov. Chris Gregoire toured U.S. 2 and vowed to fix the highway on which 45 people have died in crashes over the last eight years.

“It’s no secret that people have been talking about U.S. 2,” said Rep. Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Is­land, chairwoman of the House Transportation Committee.

In addition to U.S. 2, Highway 203 and Highway 522 intersect in Monroe. Thousands of drivers use those highways, and the state is responsible for upgrading and maintaining them, said Rep. Dan Kristiansen, R-Snohomish.

Officials and residents in the Skykomish Valley have been calling legislators’ attention to U.S. 2 problems for a long time, Kristiansen said. That state leaders are finally paying attention would help the highway receive money from the 2008 Legislature, he said.

“There’s an emergency here,” Kristiansen said.

Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@heraldnet.com.