Monroe officials lobby for SR-522

Monroe Mayor Geoffrey Thomas and city councilmembers traveled to Olympia last week to lobby for funds that would finish improvements, and the widening of State Route 522.

Right now commuters looking to avoid stop-and-go rush hour traffic head south through Duvall, putting pressure on roadways that weren’t designed to handle those extra couple-thousand trips per day, Thomas said. Businesses in Monroe and the Sky Valley have trouble bringing in good and services, people are delayed getting to and from work, and emergency responders have trouble getting through when traffic is backed up, he said.

Completing the project is “for public safety, for schools, for freight mobility, for people mobility,” Thomas said. “It needs to get finished. It’s frustrating when I see projects get started but never get finished.”

Corridor improvement plans began 20 years ago, according to a Jan. 31 funding request from Washington Sen. Kirk Pearson. Sections were expanded from one to two lanes in each direction, and two of the phases remain to this day, including removal of one stoplight at Paradise Lake Road and a redesign of that intersection, and widening a three-mile bottleneck between the intersection and Monroe.

The funding request refers to the corridor as “one of the worst in the state,” due to its rating as a “failing intersection” by the Washington State Department of Transportation, and the Paradise Lake Road intersection as a “rural arterial with an urban level of traffic,” in the Snohomish County Comprehensive Plan.

Pearson is asking for $3.5 million to be included in the 2017-19 state transportation budget, to cover construction costs for turn lanes east and westbound on SR-522, an interchange at Paradise Lake Road and widening the bottleneck from one to two lanes from the Snohomish River to Paradise Lake Road. The request also asks for $750,000 for the interchange and widening, and $16 million for replacing fish culverts related to the project.

Pearson’s office is also working on two proposals for practical design assessments, he said. Pearson said his counterparts are doing the same in the House.

District 5 County Councilmember Sam Low said while the plans to finish the project are slated years out, the goal is to get things moving faster. He said legislators have been very responsive to the concerns expressed by the Monroe School District regarding the number of students regularly 30-45 minutes late to class because their buses can’t move any faster.

Pearson and Thomas said it is too early in the session to tell if any funds will be set aside for the project. The city of Monroe is hosting a public open house, where WSDOT staff will answer questions, tentatively set for 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 8, at Monroe High School, Thomas said.