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Ramp meters to be activated Monday at Hwy. 500, Fourth Plain for northbound I-205

Next year WSDOT to install 5 meters for southbound I-5

By Jeffrey Mize, Columbian staff reporter
Published: May 31, 2019, 6:06am
4 Photos
A metered ramp warning sign is posted just off of Washington Street at the beginning of the I-5 onramp before the Interstate 5 Bridge in Vancouver on Thursday, May 30, 2019.
A metered ramp warning sign is posted just off of Washington Street at the beginning of the I-5 onramp before the Interstate 5 Bridge in Vancouver on Thursday, May 30, 2019. Alisha Jucevic/The Columbian Photo Gallery

Drivers getting on Interstate 205 northbound near Vancouver Mall are in for a change starting with Monday’s afternoon rush hour.

The Washington State Department of Transportation will activate ramp meters, from state Highway 500 and Northeast Fourth Plain Boulevard, onto the freeway for the evening commute.

Bigger changes are in store for commuters next year when WSDOT installs meters on five onramps to Interstate 5 southbound, at Northeast 78th Street, Main Street, 39th Street, Fourth Plain Boulevard and Mill Plain Boulevard.

Ramp meters are mini signals used during rush hour and other peak travel periods to control the frequency of vehicles entering the freeway. Typically, ramp meters give alternate green lights to two lanes of vehicles queuing to get onto the freeway.

Did You Know?

 Ramp meters were first installed in the 1960s on the Dwight D. Eisenhower Expressway (Interstate 290) in Chicago.

 Today, 17 states, plus Washington, D.C., have ramp meters.

 Three metropolitan areas — Los Angeles, Minneapolis and San Francisco — have more than 300 ramp meters.

SOURCE: Federal Highway Administration

WSDOT says ramp meters are part of a broader strategy to move more freeway traffic during peak periods. According to the agency, ramp meters are a cost-effective technique to avoid flooding the freeway with too many vehicles, which eases congestion, reduces rear-end and sideswipe crashes, and delays the need for costly freeway-widening projects.

The two ramp meters to be activated Monday are just north of where Fourth Plain Boulevard crosses over I-205. The project is expected to cost about $540,000.

“During peak evening travel times, the onramp to northbound I-205 becomes a choke point as several drivers try to merge onto the freeway simultaneously,” said Mike Southwick, a WSDOT traffic engineer. “Ramp meters will help improve travel times and safety by breaking up traffic and allowing smoother merging onto the highway.”

WSDOT is still dialing in when the ramp meters will be used, with 3 to 7 p.m. weekdays providing a general time frame, Southwick said. The meters could automatically turn on during other periods of heavy congestion, with WSDOT’s traffic management center monitoring traffic flow using cameras and other technology, he said.

Southwick said he expects WSDOT will also put ramp meters from Mill Plain Boulevard onto I-205 northbound “in the near future.”

Currently, the only ramp meters in Clark County are at the confluence of two onramps to I-5 southbound, from state Highway 14 westbound and from downtown Vancouver near Fifth and Washington streets. Those meters have been used since January 1998.

The upcoming work to install ramp meters for I-5 southbound will have a bigger effect on commuters and a hefty price tag: $4 million to $5 million.

Southwick said construction could begin this fall and will include “active traffic management” elements, such as message signs over travel lanes displaying information about lane closures, advisory speeds and travel times.

Another part of the project is restriping the onramp from Highway 14 westbound to I-5 southbound to two travel lanes. That will create a three-lane ramp meter for vehicles getting onto the freeway near the north end of the Interstate 5 Bridge.

WSDOT hasn’t decided if it will turn on all five ramp meters at once or one at a time, Southwick said. It also hasn’t decided precisely when the ramp meters would be used, with 5:30 to 9 a.m. weekdays providing a general time frame.

The I-5 ramp meters will be in the test mode for about 20 days, with current plans calling for them to go live in July 2020, said Celeste Dimichina, a WSDOT spokeswoman.

That schedule is so the meters would be fully operational before the September 2020 trunnion replacement on the I-5 Bridge. The project is expected to close the bridge’s northbound span for up to two weeks as construction crews replace a 20-inch axle that helps turn the wheels used to raise and lower the drawbridge.

Drivers who are unaccustomed to ramp meters should pull up to the white line and stop if the signal is red. When the signal turns green, they should merge onto the freeway. Only one vehicle is allowed to proceed per green.

When ramp meters are not on, drivers can proceed without stopping.

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Columbian staff reporter