By Dennis Box
The Courier-Herald
The future look of traffic in Bonney Lake is more, plenty more, and city officials are making plans to try and keep the wheels rolling.
Public Works Director Dan Grigsby presented the city's traffic vision during a May 3 City Council workshop, which included major intersection projects on state Route 410 at South Prairie Road and Sumner-Buckley Highway, road widening, installation of lights and chip seal maintenance.
"We are doing everything we can to keep traffic moving," Grigsby said. "We can't afford to not do this right."
The city is completing a traffic corridor study for 192nd Avenue East.
The plan is to complete 192nd Avenue East going south past Wal-Mart connecting it to 104th Street East. The project will connect Rhodes Lake Road to state Route 410 and is expected to cost about $7 million.
The city will sponsor a public meeting from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. May 18 at Mountain View Junior High School, 10920 199th Ave. Ct. E.
Susan Graham, project manager for Parametrix, an engineering firm designing the project for the city, said the company is seeking public input to help narrow the options and find out what people want.
"We will be asking people to comment on bike lanes, sidewalks and traffic calming techniques," Graham said. " The plan now is for a 25 mph, two lane road."
Grigsby said part of the funding for such a project would likely come from a Public Work Trust Fund loan, a .5 percent loan available to municipalities from the state for infrastructure improvements.
A second project on the horizon is an expansion, turn lane, sidewalk and street light improvements to the intersection of Sumner-Buckley Highway and SR 410 across from the Dairy Queen.
The Cascadia Development Company is paying for the intersection project and the city is adding $350,000 for further widening of SR 410.
"Cascadia is funding the entire project as part of a traffic mitigation plan." Grigsby said. "Rather than partially funding several projects, they will fund one large project completely."
Cascadia has already broken ground on their project, which is projected to add 6,500 homes over the next 20 years.
The development company expects the first residents to move in by 2007. In the first phase of Cascadia subdivision, 1,719 homes will be built, according to Barbara Murphy, spokesperson for the company.
Developers of the Falling Water development, located between McCutcheon Road and 188th Avenue Court East across for Victor Falls Elementary, have already started work on the first 115 homes of its 1,000 home subdivision.
"It behooves us to look ahead," Mayor Bob Young said. "We've got a good plan that helps us look down the road. We have to look at these corridors ahead of time."
Dennis Box can be reached at dbox@courierherald.com.
