State plans roundabout for North Bend at exit 31
Published 5:11 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008
NORTH BEND – The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) plans to build a roundabout at the intersection of Interstate-90 and State Route 202 that is scheduled to be completed by the fall of 2007.
Nearly $1 million is in place to build the roundabout on the southside of I-90, just north of Ribary Way and the Forster Woods neighborhood. It would handle all traffic coming off and on the eastbound lanes of I-90’s Exit 31, as well as traffic on SR 202 going to and from Ribary Way.
Mike Newman, a WSDOT design team supervisor, said the roundabout will be built for safety reasons. He said WSDOT has done several traffic studies and concluded that a roundabout is needed there to maintain a safe flow of traffic off the I-90 ramps. Traffic can back up onto the highway during peak travel times and Newman said a roundabout would ensure that vehicles are kept moving down and off the ramp. According to the WSDOT Web site, an average of 5,000 cars use the eastbound ramps during a weekday.
Unlike a traditional roundabout, the planned roundabout at I-90 and SR 202 will not allow traffic to continually drive around the center. Rather, the roundabout would be water-drop shaped, and would allow traffic heading south on SR 202 to make a U-turn, but not drive around. Traffic heading north on SR 202 from Ribary Way or from the I-90 ramp will be able only to head north.
Newman said WSDOT plans to hold public meetings in October to get citizen input about the project. In the past, a majority of those serving on the North Bend City Council have come out against a roundabout at the intersection of Cedar Falls Way and North Bend Way. The planned roundabout at SR 202 and I-90, however, would be a state project built in a WSDOT right of way, so it will not have to be approved by the City Council.
That does not mean there will not be a chance for the city to give WSDOT input about the project, according to city public works director Ron Garrow. Garrow said WSDOT does take public comment into consideration when it plans a project. He said the project is still early in its design stages, but he will lobby for an element in the roundabout that would make it safer for bike travel.
Garrow supported the idea of a roundabout at the intersection. He has championed the idea of using them in the city in the past and backs up the state’s claim that they move traffic quickly and safely through busy intersections.
“I’d like to see more of them,” he said.
* For information on the project, visit www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/I90/SR202_Eramp/.
