Two Traffic Projects Get A Green Light -- I-5 Interchange, Hwy. 99 Widening

-- LYNNWOOD

Two long-awaited projects to ease traffic congestion in South Snohomish County are moving closer to the starting line.

A proposed full Interstate 5 interchange at 196th Street Southwest in Lynnwood and a plan to widen and improve Highway 99 from the King County line to 148th Street Southwest are expected to become realities during the next decade.

For the first time, Lynnwood's proposed budget includes multimillion-dollar expenditures for design work on the projects.

``They're really projects that will benefit South Snohomish County,'' said public-works director Loren Sand.

``There are things that should have happened years ago,'' said Mayor M.J. Hrdlicka, alluding to the 350,000 cars that travel through Lynnwood every day.

City and transportation officials blame at least part of Lynnwood's traffic congestion on the mile separation between the entries to I-5. Today, traffic traveling to and from the south gets on and off the thruway at 44th Avenue West, while traffic traveling to and from the north gets on and off I-5 at 196th Street Southwest.

The split interchange forces motorists to use city streets instead of the freeway. For example, motorists living to the east of I-5 in the Alderwood Manor area must drive through Lynnwood to head north on the thruway.

A report last year by the Puget Sound Council of Governments recommended expanding the interchange on 196th Street to go in both directions.

Sand said the proposal to build the full interchange includes adding two ramps at 196th Street Southwest: for traffic coming to the south and for cars traveling from the south. The project also would include building a 28th Avenue West overpass across I-5 and improving 196th Street Southwest north of the interchange to the Bothell-Everett Highway.

Vehicles also could continue to use the ramps on 44th Avenue West, Sand said.

Construction is scheduled to begin in 1993, with completion expected by 2000.

More than 60 percent of the funding for the proposed

$49.6 million project would come from the state Transportation Improvement Board, which allocates a percentage of state gas-tax money for regional transportation projects. The agency has given the project preliminary approval.

Nearly 30 percent of the cost is expected to be picked up through federal and other state money. Lynnwood and Snohomish County are expecting to pay about $2 million each toward the project.

In its preliminary 1991 budget, Lynnwood has budgeted nearly $1.4 million for environmental analysis and design work on the project. The city will initially pay for the work and be reimbursed proportionally by the other participating agencies, Sand said.

Another proposal to improve a 6.9-mile stretch of Highway 99 has long been in the planning stages and earlier this year won high marks from officials in the four participating jurisdictions.

Because about half the length of the stretch lies in Lynnwood, the city also is leading the Highway 99 project and has proposed budgeting more than $1 million next year for design work, for which it would be partly reimbursed.

Plans call for widening the road from five to seven lanes and adding sidewalks, crosswalks and improved traffic signals. Completion of the project is aimed for 1996.

The cost is estimated at

about $15.3 million, with about $12.2 million expected from the state Transportation Improvement Board, which has already given preliminary approval for about

$10 million.

An additional $2.2 million is expected to come from the state Department of Transportation, with the remaining money coming from the city, Edmonds, Snohomish County, Mountlake Terrace and Community Transit.