Exit 25 set to receive new turn signal

Published 12:48 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

SNOQUALMIE – The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is planning to give those who wait to get off Interstate 90 at Exit 25 some traffic relief.

By the end of the year WSDOT hopes to complete a stop light and right-turn lane at the end of the exit ramp off eastbound I-90 that stops at Highway 18.

The $150,000-$200,000 project will go out to bid in August with construction starting sometime in the fall.

Ron Paananen, assistant regional administrator for WSDOT, said there should be minimal traffic impact to the area while it is being built.

The stop light that is to be built, however, will be a temporary one. A larger, $3-million project is being lobbied for by area lawmakers in Olympia. The project would include a longer right-turn lane, a left-turn lane and an improved traffic light. Highway 18 would also get a sidewalk and an additional northbound lane that would go underneath I-90.

Once the funding on that project is approved, Paananen said it would take three years before construction could begin because of environmental studies required for construction in the area.