The Nov. 25 Herald article “Mukilteo misses the boat” lumped two different projects into one by implying that the new Mukilteo ferry terminal included an access road through Japanese Gulch. This is simply not true. Per the state Department of Transportation, Referendum 51 only included $108 million for a multi-modal terminal at Mukilteo, not for the construction of a new $100 million access road.
The article also implied that it is a foregone conclusion that any future ferry terminal will need a new access road. Per state guidelines, the North Mukilteo Highway 525 traffic volumes predicted for the year 2025 don’t meet even the lowest level of service standards for funding. Although Mukilteo may want to build a new ferry access road to help pretty up the Old Town area for tourists, the taxpayers of Washington state shouldn’t be expected to foot the bill (especially when there are many other high-priority road improvement projects in the wings awaiting funding).
The problem with the ferry traffic in Mukilteo isn’t due to the volume of vehicles, but from the way those vehicles are currently handled. The existing ferry holding lot doesn’t even have the capacity for one ferry’s worth of cars, which means that the ferry holding traffic must queue up along Highway 525. As planned, the new ferry terminal will have a lot large enough to remove nearly all of the ferry holding traffic off of Highway 525. Also, the effects of ferry offload traffic can be effectively mitigated through off-the-shelf traffic handling improvements.
In the future, The Herald may wish to talk with the Washington State Transportation Commission or Transportation Department instead of the City of Mukilteo on this issue. These bodies are more likely to provide a reality-based dollars-and-cents assessment of the proposed access road and not the “wouldn’t it be great for our city?” dreaming of Mukilteo.
Mukilteo
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