“We haven’t made a determination yet whether we will be able to implement this fall,” said Carley Francis, WSDOT regional planning director. “We may have a decision within days.”
Pedestrians are currently able to cross Northeast 54th and Stapleton at the light. They’ll lose that ability once the intersection is reconfigured.
Francis said the concept includes the construction of a pedestrian crossing — probably an overpass — but it likely won’t be built until sometime between 2021 and 2025 after funding is secured during a legislative biennium.
The highway reconfiguration would come from WSDOT safety project funds.
This summer, WSDOT counted about 30 pedestrians and 10 bicyclists per day crossing the highway at Northeast 54th/Stapleton Road.
WSDOT pegged initial project estimates at between $3 million and $4 million. It’s now assumed to cost $6 million. That figure could change over time.
Francis described the funding behind the increased costs as a “placeholder” in case the changes to the highway lead to traffic complications on nearby roads that require improvements. To determine if any mitigation is needed, WSDOT will work with the county and city, will collect and analyze traffic data to better understand if and how drivers’ behaviors change after the highway is reconfigured.
That extra money will come a few years later with money to build the pedestrian crossing.
“As we make changes, we recognize there are externalities, and that’s why we’re interested in working with local agencies,” Francis said.
Around 60,000 vehicles per day travel Highway 500.
During the peak afternoon time, 4:45 p.m., 1,000 people cross or turn onto Highway 500 from 42nd/Falk, and about 1,500 do the same at 54th/Stapleton.
WSDOT predicts the right in/right out concept will reduce crashes up to 70 percent, and greatly reduce travel times while also completely eliminating traffic delays.
In the last five years, there have been close to 400 crashes, or close to one crash every four days, around the two Highway 500 signalized intersections, according to WSDOT. The agency blames it on larger traffic volumes — it estimates nearly 30 percent more people are using the highway than a decade ago — and driver inattention. Three-quarters of those crashes are rear-enders.
In addition to the preferred solution, regional traffic planners laid out two other alternatives this spring: cutting the four roads off from the highway and turning them into cul-de-sacs with pedestrian overpasses and a first-in-the-state restricted crossing U-turn intersection.
There have been previous efforts to change the two intersections, though none ever gained any traction.
In 2002, the voters defeated a referendum which would have raised the gas tax to fund a variety of infrastructure projects statewide including an overpass at Northeast 42nd Avenue/Falk Road.
Francis also said any changes made today doesn’t preclude future improvement to the corridor; but those improvements might not be what community members have expected historically, such as an overpass.
The agency doesn’t have the money for substantial projects, so it has looked for “practical solutions” that can be done for around $5 million. Larger projects that would require funding by the state Legislature when it drafts the next transportation package, and that is many years away.
WSDOT officials will discuss the plan during a Vancouver City Council workshop, which starts at 4 p.m. Monday.
