With tongue planted firmly in cheek, I want to congratulate the Tulalip Tribes, the City of Marysville, the county, the state – or whoever is responsible for the traffic fiasco at both the 116th Street and 88th Street exits from I-5, with people trying to get to the new outlet mall. Neither of these roads is designed to handle the amount of traffic that is now on them.
The infrastructure should have been improved before the mall opened to allow for better traffic flow. The tribes have been stating how they had to put so much of their own money into the infrastructure around QuilCeda Village, the casino and the outlet mall, which I don’t doubt that they did. I just wish they would have contributed money to improve the traffic flow to these places. I really find it unbelievable, even though I know I shouldn’t, that a city or county would allow these bigger developments to go into an area without doing any up-front improvements to keep traffic running smoothly. Considering the price of gas and diesel, the amount of fuel being wasted in these tie-ups, not to mention the emissions going in the air, must be enormous.
Have any of the above organizations put any thought into a left-hand turn lane in front of the truck stop and another at 35th Avenue NE for eastbound traffic? The design of these intersections needs to be improved soon, for before we know it the holiday season will be upon us and that means more shoppers at the outlet mall which means more traffic. Since that time of year is normally wetter and the darkness descends on us sooner, I can just see more accidents heading our way in this location.
Jake Ritland
Marysville
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