WSDOT wrapping up nearly 20 years of highway improvements
Nov 16, 2015, 6:44 PM | Updated: Nov 17, 2015, 1:13 pm
The Washington State Department of Transportation is considering a roundabout for Highway 9, for similar reasons behind the Highway 2 roundabout. (WSDOT)
(WSDOT)
A major recreation route in Skagit County is scheduled for a facelift, but not until drivers get a chance to tell the Washington State Department of Transportation exactly what they want.
Highway 9 can be a very dangerous road at certain spots. It’s not well lit. It’s rural and there is virtually no traffic control at cross streets or intersections.
That’s the case where Old Day Road — or Francis Road as it’s also known — crossed Highway 9 in Clear Lake, just south of Sedro-Woolley. That spot is one of the more dangerous intersections on Highway 9.
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“We’ve seen a number of collisions over the last 10 years at the intersection and in the area around the intersection,” said Tom Pearce with WSDOT.
Pearce said they are putting together a construction project, set to break ground in 2018, to make the intersection a lot safer.
“This will help improve safety at the intersection, because right now Highway 9 traffic just goes straight through and traffic stops [while] crossing it,” Pearce said. “So we have seen a number of collisions with traffic turning left onto the highway.”
WSDOT is hosting the first of two public meetings on the proposed project Thursday night in Clear Lake.
Pearce said the engineers are approaching this without an idea of what the right fix is. They want to hear from the people who use that intersection — approximately 9,300 drivers a day.
“There are a lot of people who drive this section of highway all the time,” Pearce said. “They know what’s happening out there and they can provide us some great ideas about what would be the best controls for that intersection; whether we are looking at a four-way stop, a traffic signal, perhaps a roundabout.”
Roundabouts have become a quite popular fix for many spots on Highway 9. WSDOT has constructed them at intersections east of Arlington and Marysville, and on other rural roads like Highway 2.
Drivers didn’t like the roundabouts at first — many still don’t — but they have slowed traffic down at those intersections.
WSDOT is nearing the end of nearly 20 years of improvements on Highway 9, where it has spent $300 million to make the road safer and wider in some spots.
