By Pat Jenkins
The Dispatch
Eatonville will get its first red-light, green-light traffic signal as part of traffic and pedestrian upgrades for the busiest street in town.
Plans for the $800,000-plus project on Washington Avenue North include the signal at the Center Street East intersection. The signal will cost $255,000, more than a quarter of the $841,240 contract the Town Council awarded to a general contractor for the full project. Drivers almost surely will consider the money well-spent.
Town officials note the full-fledged signalization will be a dramatic improvement of traffic control at Center and Washington. The intersection, with its four-way stop signs and a flashing-red light, has been a notorious bottleneck during holiday weekends and other heavy traffic periods when tourists and campers are passing through town on their way to Mount Rainier National Park, Alder Lake Park and other popular recreation areas.
Washington Avenue is the in-town portion of State Route 161, one of the most-traveled roads to the Mount Rainier area. Long backups at the Center Street junction occur on the high-volume traffic days.
Town administrator Abby Gribi said “to my knowledge, this will be the first full signal in Eatonville,” bringing relief to the Washington Avenue-Center Street backups.
A full-on signal for the intersection has been a topic for years but was beyond the town's ability to pay for by itself.
State and federal funding is covering most of the $841,240 cost of the Washington Avenue “streetscape project,” as it's called in plans. The town’s share is $87,440.
Other parts of the project include sidewalk ramps to comply with the American Disability Act, new curbs and gutters, and trees along the roadside – all between Center Street and Lynch Creek Road.
Northeast Electric, a company based in Woodland near Vancouver, was awarded the project's contract by the Town Council on Aug. 14.
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