By Pat Jenkins The Dispatch Two roads in south Pierce County will share some of the recently announced allocation of millions of federal dollars for making motorists and pedestrians safer in the next two years. Guardrails and guardrail reflectors will be added to sections of Alder Cutoff Road East, located between Eatonville and State Route 7. And Orting-Kapowsin Highway will receive the same safety aids, plus centerline rumble strips and safety edges, between 200th Street East and Leach Road East. Officials said contracts for those and similar projects countywide will be awarded by September 2016, following various planning and preliminary work. It's expected that the the improvements will be in place by November 2017. Funding for the projects was announced earlier this month through the state Department of Transportation. Pierce County, which is receiving about $2 million, is among 46 local governments and agencies across Washington that are in line for $48 million in federal highway safety improvement funds. "These funds will allow us to make important road safety improvements for our motorists and pedestrians," said Brian Ziegler, the director of Pierce County Public Works and Utilities. The county also is earmarking some of its own road funds for its projects. Brian Stacy, a public works engineer, said the decisions to make safety measures on roads such as Alder Cutoff and Orting-Kapowsin Highway "were based on a combination" of factors. They include traffic volumes, the amount of accidents, and roadway characteristics, "with the goal of preventing drivers from crossing the centerline or running off the road." Other Pierce County projects include improvements for pedestrians at the intersection of Military Road South and Bresemann Boulevard South. New lighting, handicap-accessible ramps, a median island and flashing beacons that indicate a pedestrian is in the crosswalk will be installed for $206,100 in federal money and $22,900 in county funds. According to DOT, projects that were selected for federal funding will have the highest safety gains for the lowest amounts of spending. DOT received 89 applications from across the state for projects with a combined cost of $110 million. All were evaluated against crash data involving serious injury and fatal crashes, officials said.
Comments
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
Sign in to comment