A meeting to discuss traffic issues relating to Highway 20 had many South Fidalgo residents wanting to put the brakes on current projects.

The Washington State Department of Transportation’s projects include work along the highway from Miller/Gibralter roads to Meadow Creek by the Shrimp Shack and the proposed Sharpes Corner roundabout.

The meeting hosted by the South Fidalgo Community Council filled the public room at the Mount Erie Fire Station on Wednesday, July 9.

Chair Tom Carson set the agenda and 10th District Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, introduced herself and WSDOT staff who reviewed the projects.

After Assistant Regional Administrator Todd Harrison explained the $34 million, two-phase project expanding lanes and improving intersections on South Fidalgo, many said the department was going about the project the wrong way.

Some argued the problems getting from one point to another on the highway isn’t as bad as just getting on and off it from the smaller roads.

South Fidalgo council member Harold Harrington said the state should fix the route from Sharpes Corner to the Deception Pass Bridge first for the safety of residents and then for people traveling through the area.

Turning left from Campbell Lake Road to the highway or left from Gibraltar Road is both hard and dangerous, said South Fidalgo resident Carol Ehlers. What helps is the gaps created from the light at Sharpes Corner. If the roundabout goes in as planned, she argued those gaps would go away.

Earlier discussions in the roundabout project included adding either a traffic light or a roundabout at the Miller/Gibralter roads to address the gaps eliminated by the Sharpes Corner roundabout, Harrison said. But the additional work does not fit into the budget and so has been tabled.

Also out of the $22.9 million budget is some kind of pedestrian crossing, which attendees at the meeting said the state should have focused on more when they came up with the modified design that adds an eastbound tunnel underneath the roundabout.

Vince Streano said there is no safe way to get across Highway 20 at Sharpes Corner. And with people turning to alternative transportation because of increasing gas prices, such a crossing will be needed more in the future.

What the roundabout will do is address the high rate of accidents at the intersection, Harrison said. From 2004 to 2006, 51 people were injured in 80 collisions.

Changing the lighted intersection to a roundabout could reduce injury accidents up to 75 percent according to statistics from the National Safety Commission, Harrison said.

Along the highway from Gibralter Road to Meadow Creek, 156 collisions during a five-year period from 2002 to 2007 injured 100 people and killed two.

The two-phase project scheduled to be completed next year will help eliminate those accidents, Harrison said. It’s not to speed people up, but to increase sight distance and make other improvements to intersections to make them safer to navigate.

Another issue discussed at the meeting involved easing the traffic on Highway 20 through South Fidalgo and over the Deception Pass Bridge.

“What we really need is a bridge to I-5,” said South Fidalgo resident Dave Crawford.

Crawford proposed taking much of the traffic to a 9.2-mile bridge stretching from the mainland northwest of Stanwood to Strawberry Point on Whidbey Island. The East Whidbey User-funded Bridge, as Crawford calls it, would also save drivers the 30 miles of travel through Sharpes Corner, adding up to thousands of gallons of gas each day.

The state toyed with the idea of another access to Whidbey in 2001 and estimated a bridge would cost $260.3 million at the time, Crawford said.

Haugen said the cost would be much more today and said the floating bridge across Lake Washington will cost the state $2 to $4 billion in comparison.

“There is no money to build a bridge,” Haugen said. “You would have to toll.”

And a toll would have to come from the Legislature, which didn’t seem likely, she insinuated.

Harrison said the bridge issue gets into a statewide debate on priorities. The important point to take away from the meeting was to understand how people need to get involved with transportation planning, he said.

“It took 18 years to build the Tacoma Narrows bridge,” Haugen said. “You’ve got to go through a process. You have to start at the local level.”

Ehlers, who is a county planning commissioner, suggested people get involved with Skagit County’s six-year transportation improvement program, which is currently going through an update and will be before the county commissioners Aug. 12.

Both Harrison and Haugen explained project proposals come up from cities and counties working with the state. WSDOT estimates the costs, prioritizes them on a list and the Legislature decides whether to fund them.

Haugen suggested people speak to their county commissioners and commission candidates, many who were at the meeting, about projects they want done. She also pointed out that having a community council was an asset because it could serve as an advocate to the county government.

Washington State Department of Transportation projects

South Fidalgo Highway 20 project

The project to improve safety and traffic flow is being done in two phases with the first phase finishing up this summer. Costing nearly $23 million, it focuses on the highway from South Lake Campbell Road to Meadow Creek, widening lanes and shoulders, adding turn lanes, flattening horizontal and vertical curves and replacing the culvert at the creek with a bridge.

The $11.1 million contract for the second phase was awarded to Scarsella Brothers Inc. of Kent. Crews have begun preparing for utility work by installing high-visibility fencing, signs and erosion control, and clearing the shoulders. The actual construction will start next summer to widen lanes and improve intersections from South Lake Campbell Road north to Miller/Gibralter roads.

The second phase will include rock blasting near Gibraltar and Miller between November and May. During the work, traffic will be detoured.

Highway 20 Sharpes Corner intersection

The proposed roundabout design to replace the lighted intersection includes a bypass tunnel for eastbound traffic to lighten the load on the roundabout itself. The modification means the reconfigured intersection will keep up with traffic growth for 40 years rather than 20.

The department has done cost and risk assessments on the project to make sure the project will work, can be built without any major problems, comes within the $22.9 million budget and is the right investment for the state.

Recent soil samples taken from the area by WSDOT confirmed the water table is where engineers expected it to be, verifying the tunnel option will work. However, they also found a lot of solid rock that will add to the cost of construction to remove it.

WSDOT plans another open house on the Sharpes Corner roundabout proposal sometime in September.

To comment on a WSDOT project, residents can go to the particular project’s Web page through http://www.wsdot.wa.gov.