‘Frustrating’ section of roadway won’t be fixed for years

Washington is full of projects that have never been completed, thanks to the struggles of the legislature and realities of the budget over the last decade.

But even with a new transportation budget, many projects on the list won’t be seeing any changes for years, like today’s Chokepoint: Highway 522.

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Highway 522 connects Monroe to 405 in Bothell.

It was just eight months ago that the state finished a major widening project to establish two lanes in each direction between Monroe and the Snohomish River.

But all that did was push this chokepoint four miles down the road because it squeezes back to one lane in each direction, between the Fales/Echo Lake Rd Interchange and the Snohomish River Bridge, for a three-mile stretch and creating long backups.

It is a red line on the traffic maps every day where the lanes are cut in half.

Andrew Acker contacted me through mynorthwest.com, asking when the state is going to widen that three-mile stretch and eliminate this chokepoint for good. He says he creeps on that stretch everyday.

“It’s so frustrating,” he wrote.

That widening project is on the state’s wish list, but there are a bunch of projects in line in front of it.

Even if this project gets the funding today, under the new transportation budget, it is still not on the calendar until the 2025-27 biennium, and there is only $10 million allocated for the project. As it stands now, that money is only for design and engineering. There is no money budgeted, even on the wish list, for buying property or construction.

So this chokepoint between Monroe and Maltby is going to continue for years.