Turn lane median befuddles residents

A new turn lane median on Mill Creek Boulevard at the intersection with Bothell-Everett Highway have some Mill Creek residents wondering what the Washington State Department of Transportation is up to.

“Everytime I’ve been someplace people are asking me what are they doing,” City Council member Mary Kay Voss said.

What the DOT is doing is installing a landscaped median to separate a turn lane on westbound Mill Creek Boulevard that goes onto southbound Bothell-Everett Highway from the westbound through-traffic lane.

The arrangement goes against what traffic engineers have traditionally done with turn lanes – putting a median between a turn lane and a travel lane going in the opposite direction.

Scott Smith, an engineer with the city of Mill Creek, said about five to 10 people per week have come by city hall asking about the median since construction on it started.

“It’s been a very hot topic,” Smith said. “Some people are definitely unhappy, others are surprised that it’s going in, but once we explain it to them, they understand why. They might not like it, but they understand it.”

The explanation is fairly simple, according to Dawn McIntosh, the DOT’s project manager for the Bothell-Everett Highway redesign. The median is part of the state’s improvements to Bothell-Everett Highway, also known as State Route 527.

Mill Creek Boulevard has different numbers of turn lanes onto Bothell-Everett Highway, with two lanes going from the eastbound boulevard onto the northbound highway. Only one turn lane goes from westbound Mill Creek Boulevard onto southbound Bothell-Everett Highway. The median is meant to ensure westbound drivers stay alligned with their proper lane, McIntosh said. The left turn lane, meanwhile, will be separated from the eastbound travel lane by pavement markings.

DOT has done this kind of arrangement at two King County intersections, McIntosh said: on N. 160th Street at Highway 99 in Shoreline and near Kent at 208th Street SE and Highway 515.

“The goal is to make it safe for drivers,” McIntosh said. “This way, there’s a smaller risk of collision because the driver is spending less time in the intersection. A driver turning southbound doesn’t have to go up against two turn lanes, and drivers going straight don’t have to wait for someone to turn.”

Nonetheless, there is a belief among some residents that the new median will not be safe, and lead to a rash of accidents, Voss said.

“The real issue people have expressed to me is if you’re in the left turn lane, people will see the median and assume its dividing oncoming traffic,” Voss said. “Some guy could be whipping around the corner thinking he’s in the right lane, but he’s in the left turn lane heading right toward oncoming traffic.

“It gives the wrong visual impression to drivers along 527,” Voss said. “Someone who doesn’t know the intersection is getting the wrong visual clues.”

McIntosh disagrees.

“With the (street signs and lane markings) and vehicles in the turn lane, that should provide plenty of visual clues,” she said.

But the median, being built at a cost of $22,400, including landscaping costs, however, is not permanent. The city of Mill Creek can remove them at any point in the future if they are deemed a hazard, Mill Creek public works director Doug Jacobson said.

“We’ll see how people react to the pavement markings and if they get used to it,” Jacobson said.

Voss believes the intersection could become a financial liability for the city of Mill Creek, not just because of a potential lawsuit if someone is injured in an accident there, but also in case replacing the median becomes necessary.

“We see too many projects where you do it once, it has to be done again a second time,” she said. “That was one of those intersections that wasn’t broken.”