This
month’s Transportation Committee meeting was about Connecting Washington, a
$1.6 billion revenue project funding mega projects, preservation and
maintenance, services, ferries, and multi modal transportation projects. It includes a phased 11.9¢ gas tax increase. There are five WashDOT
projects in the Eastern Region:
SR26/Dusty
to Colfax – Add climbing lanes. The goal is to reduce reckless passing. Projected
start: 2025.
US195/Colfax
to Spangle – Add passing lanes. Again, the goal is to reduce reckless passing.
Projected start: 2017.
In
the cases of both areas, traffic use doesn’t warrant adding full lanes. By
adding passing/climbing lanes, drivers will be encouraged to wait to pass until
they reach one of these areas, instead of passing on dangerous hills and
curves. This is especially important for those times when traffic is unusually
heavy due to activities connected to WSU (beginning and end of term,
Dad’s/Mom’s weekend, games).
Speaking
of Wazzu, WSU recently started the #BeSafeCougs campaign. Be Safe Cougs uses
Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, even road signs to remind students, faculty, and
staff to drive safely. This has nothing to do with Connecting Washington. It's just cool.
I-90 Medical Lake and Geiger Interchange -- improvements to ramp terminals and both interchanges; improvements to existing ramps at Geiger. The current configuration is insufficient for expected growth in the area. Projected start: 2019.
Diverging diamond interchange (DDI) at Henry. Diverging diamond interchanges actually move
traffic to the other side of the road (driving on the left) in order to make
merging, exiting, and left turns easier. There are several YouTube videos
showing how it works. Originally, work was to be done at Barker, Henry, and
Harvard, but the legislature renamed the item to just be Henry Road. Waiting to
see what effect this will have. Expected start: 2029.
All
of these support Target Zero, an effort to eliminate fatalities and serious
injuries on Washington roads. The effort focuses on education, enforcement, engineering, emergency medical services, and leadership/policy. (Think zero is an unreasonable number? Check out this video of people throughout the state responding to to questions about fatalities.)
The
North Spokane Corridor (aka the North-South Freeway), US395, is still getting
funding. Some adjustments need to be made due to ground and water contamination.
There was known ground contamination at the site of a former fueling station.
From what was known at the time, capping (i.e. paving over) would have been
sufficient to prevent ground water contamination. Too late! There’s now ground
water contamination. It hasn’t made it into the drinking water supply, and
probably won’t. It sort of balls up and floats on the surface. Still, it needs
to go. There’s some rerouting of the highway as a result.
