The project to widen Highway 527 is going full speed ahead — unlike traffic between 164th and 132nd streets in Mill Creek.
Construction is expected to begin in mid-April, with April 21 as the latest start date, said Dawn McIntosh, project manager for Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). Workers from Tristate Construction Co. will widen the two-lane roadway to five lanes, including an additional lane in each direction and a turn-lane in the center.
A ground breaking ceremony is scheduled for 1 p.m. Thursday April 17 at the entryway to the Town Center site, at 153rd St. and Highway 527.
Rush hour on the stretch of Hwy 527 — also known as Bothell-Everett Highway — rivals that on I-5 and I-405. Peak hours are between 4 and 5:30 p.m. in the evenings and 6:30 to 8 a.m. mornings. That’s when the bulk of daily traffic moves through the city of Mill Creek. On a daily basis, Mill Creek’s portion of Highway 527 is packed with 13,000 to 29,000 vehicles per day, with the higher numbers near the 164th St. intersection.
Selma Bonham, a retired geologist living in Mill Creek, said she avoids Highway 527 during rush hour because of the traffic.
“It’s difficult to get from the library onto 527 because that gets really bad,” Bonham said.
PUD workers conducted a tree removal recently near the Mill Creek Library to prepare for the 527 widening. It was hard for some people to see those trees go.
“I hate to see the natural environment destroyed to widen the road, but it just seems necessary. We don’t have a choice,” Bonham said.
The purpose of the project is to improve traffic flow and safety on a busy stretch of Highway 527, carrying the Mill Creek community and its commuters into 2025.
“We designed it to meet the traffic demands that will be there in 20 years time,” said Jeff Lundstrom, project design engineer for WSDOT.
He said WSDOT used city and county population projections to determine what the increase of traffic flow would be through 2025 and factored those numbers into the design of the project.
This time last year, construction on the widening project was ready to begin when officials learned that they would have to delay it a year due to budget constraints. Sound walls went up, but that was the end of work for last year.
Doug Jacobson, Mill Creek director of Public Works, said he observed a “big sigh of relief” after news that the project would move forward got out at city hall.
“It’s been something the city’s been working with WSDOT on for years. Everyone anticipated construction last summer,” he said.
Charlie Gibbons, Mill Creek business owner and one of the founders of the Mill Creek Business Association, said the project is “definitely long overdue.”
Traffic problems on Highway 527 have harmed Mill Creek businesses by pushing away people who would otherwise drive through the city, and frequent its businesses. Gibbons said improvements should help solve that problem, bringing in people from surrounding areas as traffic loosens up.
With that to look forward to, businesses will have to endure one more construction season on Highway 527.
The to-do list of for the highway expansion includes left turn lanes at intersections, addition of bicycle lanes and sidewalks on both sides of the roadway, a new signal at 153rd St. SE. and signage and lighting along the entire stretch of new roadway, McIntosh said.
Plans are to complete the widening with minimal disruption to traffic, McIntosh said. Only one nighttime detour is planned for electrical work for a signaling at the 164th St. intersection, McIntosh said.
Other than that detour, a barrier will separate construction crews from traffic, minimizing the impact on drivers as the project is completed, McIntosh said.
And while commuters have spent much on wasted gas money as they idled on the clogged highway, they apparently were not wasting additional tax dollars.
The $10 million in construction costs for the widening are stretching just as far as they would have last year.
“As far as costs going up, we’ve been very fortunate due to the turndown in the economy,” Lundstrom said. Bids for the project came in “at or below what they were a year ago.” But Lundstrom doesn’t disregard the cost to commuters.
“It has, however, cost the public in (traffic) congestion,” Lundstrom said.
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