The in basket: Tim Ferris writes, “It has perplexed me as to why the county prioritized the Mile Hill Drive widening and improvements over Sedgwick Road (Highway 160), with Sedgwick Road being a much higher priority from my perspective.
The in basket: Tim Ferris writes, “It has perplexed me as to
why the county prioritized the Mile Hill Drive widening and
improvements over Sedgwick Road (Highway 160), with Sedgwick Road
being a much higher priority from my perspective.
”I frequent
both roads,” he said, “to and from the Southworth ferry.
While the center turn lane is certainly an improvement for
Mile Hill, it seem painfully obvious that Sedgwick has and is in
much greater need of at least the same improvements.”
He said he’s seen numerous bad, even fatal accidents, on Sedgwick
over the past seven years. “I don’t recall seeing or hearing of
such major accidents on Mile Hill Drive,” Tim said. “Sedgwick Road
is far too narrow for its volume, with no shoulders, extremely deep
ditches and no turning lanes.
“Simply put, Sedgwick Road has significantly heaver traffic
volume versus Mile Hill Drive. It’s clear when departing the
Southworth ferry terminal that three-fourths of the traffic heads
west on Sedgwick Road versus Southworth Drive to Mile Hill
Drive
”So, why did the county spend so much of our
hard-earned tax dollars to improve Mile Hill Drive when it
seems evident that Sedgwick Road should be a higher priority?”
The
out basket: The quick answer is Mile Hill Drive is a county road
from about the China West restaurant east, while Sedgwick Road is a
state highway. The county probably couldn’t work on Sedgwick
if it wanted to.
The county compares a road with all the others in its
jurisdiction in choosing upgrades, while the state compares a
highway with all those in the Olympic Region, if not the whole
state, in making that decision.
There have been serious accidents on that stretch of Mile Hill
Drive, including a fatality at California Avenue. And surprisingly,
Sedgwick doesn’t carry more traffic. The average daily traffic
counts by the state show 12,000 on Sedgwick from the freeway to
Long Lake Road and 7,400 from there east to the ferry terminal. The
county’s daily traffic count on Mile Hill Drive west of Woods Road
is l3,378.
That’s not to say that Sedgwick wasn’t a scarier drive than Mile
Hill Drive before the work. Tim’s right about its width and general
dangerousness. The state does have a project scheduled for 2009 to
widen Sedgwick from Highway 16 to Long Lake Road, but nothing
further east. It will remain two lanes wide even when widened, but
have better shoulders. Phillips Road will get left turn
pockets and a right turn taper lane, the two-way left turn lane
will stretch from Fred Meyer to Brasch Road and the offset Converse
Road intersection will be realigned. Details are on the state Web
site, www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/SR160/SR16_LongLake.
