Road projects to be delayed?
July 15, 2008
By Administrator
City planners are proposing to delay two transportation improvement projects due to the slowing housing market.
According to a proposed update to the city’s six-year transportation plan, an $870,000 turn lane and traffic signal project for Southeast Duthie Hill Road and Issaquah-Beaver Lake Road that was originally scheduled to begin in 2010 could be pushed to 2011.
A $23.85 million project to widen Issaquah-Pine Lake Road from Southeast 48th Street to Klahanie Boulevard to five lanes with bike lanes and a curb, gutter and sidewalk could also be delayed and would not start until 2011 either.
Director of Public Works John Cunningham said the reasons for the proposed delays are a decline in traffic impact fees, which developers are required to pay for local infrastructure improvements, and the real estate excise tax that the city collects from new home sales.
“The changes that we have made are driven by the slowing in the housing market,” Cunningham said at a July 8 City Council meeting. “Traffic impact fees are not coming in as planned. We’re having to move some projects out.”
The draft plan, which the state requires the city to update annually, totals $65.15 million over six-years. Funding for it includes $23.52 million in anticipated traffic impact fees. Fifteen projects are listed but not all are funded.
Projects with funding include $6.75 million for sidewalk, trails, bikeways and paths and $360,000 as matching funds for partnership projects with public transit agencies.
The plan includes four items that are planned but have no funding source, and one item that is only partially funded – an $11.23 million project to widen East Lake Sammamish Parkway Northeast from Northeast 26th Street to 196th Avenue Northeast with bike lanes and pedestrian facilities that has $1 million allocated to it in 2014.
There is no funding in 2009-2014 for long-term projects including a $22.37 million project to widen Issaquah-Pine Lake Road from Klahanie Boulevard to Southeast 32nd Street to three lanes with bike lanes and a curb, gutter and sidewalk.
The six-year plan also lists but does not fund a $15.51 million project to widen East Lake Sammamish Parkway Northeast from 196th Avenue Northeast to 187th Avenue Northeast with bike lanes and pedestrian facilities, and a $21.24 million project to widen Sahalee Way Northeast from 220th Avenue Northeast to the city’s northern boundary to three lanes with bike lanes, and a curb, gutter and sidewalk.
Councilwoman Kathy Huckabay said she was disappointed to see that the East Lake Sammamish Parkway project will not begin until 2014 because she wanted it to be finished before the start of the 244th Avenue Improvement Project from Southeast 8th Street to Northeast 8th Street, which includes adding a median island, turning lane, roundabouts and stop signs. Huckabay said she is concerned that having both projects underway at the same time will maximize traffic disruptions for residents.
“We started this conversation many years ago that we wanted 244th to be completed [first],” she said.
City Manager Ben Yazici agreed that completing one project before starting the other would be ideal but said permit delays for the 244th Avenue project have made that difficult.
Councilman Mark Cross said keeping the projects separate could become too costly, since inflation will likely increase the cost of completing projects later than planned. “I think it would be helpful but I don’t think it would be several million dollars helpful,” he said about the prospect of delaying the 244th Avenue project.
Cunningham said 99 percent of the 244th Avenue project has been designed. According to the city’s website, construction is expected to start next fall. The East Lake Sammamish Parkway project is 60 percent designed and the city hopes to bid the project later this year and start construction by 2009.
The council will have voted on the six-year transportation improvement plan at its July 15 meeting.
Reporter Emily Keller can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 242, or ekeller@isspress.com.
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