NASCAR could help north county

Right now, existing traffic demands badly need the additional capacity that will be added by the 172nd Street overpass project. We need additional lane capacity on I-5 and Highway 9 and improved arterials between them. Smokey Point Boulevard should be improved all the way to Island Crossing. We need another interchange on I-5 at about 156th.

This is all needed right now, even if another person or another business never moves into the area.

Now, if a NASCAR track is located south of 172nd in North Marysville, all of the above will still be needed. There is nothing that’s not needed right now.

The question is, how do we bring about our traffic improvements faster? Will it happen faster with or without NASCAR? I think the answer is obvious. We already have Arlington, Marysville and Snohomish County working together to make the 172nd Street improvements happen quicker.

The state transportation bureaucracy will be focused on north county if NASCAR is coming here. So, in exchange for putting up with a huge surge in traffic for a few hours each year, we could get many of our traffic problems solved during the other 99 percent of the time.

I’d a lot sooner have state and federal money fixing our traffic mess than going somewhere else or piece it together with developer extensions.

Bill Kazala

Arlington