SULTAN — State transportation leaders are set to unveil new safety signs to be installed along deadly U.S. 2 today in Sultan, marking the highway’s new designation as a safety corridor.
The title makes more federal money available for education, engineering and enforcement efforts on the highway. The U.S. 2 safety problems continue to get attention after state lawmakers set aside $14 million for U.S. 2 safety projects during the 2008 legislative session, said Rep. Dan Kristiansen, R-Snohomish.
“The biggest thing is that awareness has been raised about how important this highway corridor is,” Kristiansen said Monday.
The money represents less than 1 percent of the $2 billion needed for overall improvements of U.S. 2.
“This is a beginning. We just got a foot in the door. Now we have to keep the momentum going,” Kristiansen said.
Gov. Chris Gregoire, who has toured the highway on her own, declared in October that U.S. 2 should be designated as a safety corridor. U.S. 2 is among five safety corridors statewide and the only one in Snohomish County, said Angie Ward, spokeswoman for the Washington Traffic Safety Commission.
Federal money available for U.S. 2 could be used to educate people about the highway’s safety troubles, for low-cost improvements such as signs and striping, or to pay overtime for law enforcement officials.
“It draws attention to the highway. It allows us to collaborate with local communities,” Washington State Patrol trooper Kirk Rudeen said.
State lawmakers also decided to pay for six additional troopers to patrol U.S. 2 this year.
“That’s something we are working on right now. It will be happening this year,” Rudeen said.
Backers of U.S. 2 safety improvements and state officials are mulling over how to make the best use of the $14 million legislators recently pledged for improvements.
About $4 million of the money already is earmarked for centerline rumble strips designed to reduce crossover crashes between east of Monroe and Stevens Pass.
How to use remaining $10 million is still up in the air. The U.S. 2 Safety Coalition, a group of local officials and residents committed to improving the highway, plans to meet Monday to listen to what the public wants.
“We want people to feel they are part of the process,” said Fred Walser, who leads the safety coalition. “It’s their highway. They should be able to express their opinions.”
State transportation experts have recommended that $6 million be spent to build a passing lane west of Sultan. The work would occur along a mile-long stretch of U.S. 2, a part of the roadway where state officials acknowledge nobody has been killed over the last nine years.
That project needs to be revisited, Kristiansen said.
“The fact that there has been no fatality is to me, ‘Wait a minute. Are we taking this seriously?’ ” he said.
The project is expected to improve traffic flow and safety, said Lorena Eng, a regional administrator of the state Department of Transportation. No fatalities have occurred along that stretch, but it is part of a larger six-mile segment of the highway between Monroe and Sultan where 16 crossover collisions have occurred in less than a decade. Each of those wrecks happened when westbound vehicles drifted into the eastbound lane, and four people have died, according to state records.
The passing lane “is how we think we can address the entire six-mile stretch,” Eng said.
State officials also are recommending adding an eastbound left-turn pocket at the intersection of U.S. 2 and E. Fernbluff Road between Monroe and Sultan, Eng said. That’s part of a project recommended in a state’s safety study on U.S. 2, which came out last year.
The study ranks 56 projects. The Fernbluff improvement is ranked No. 9, and the passing lane west of Sultan is ranked No. 33.
Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@heraldnet.com.
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