There has been a lot written in the papers lately about congestion and safety issues on US Highway 2 between Snohomish and Stevens Pass. The roadway is only two lanes wide east of SR 9. The folks that live in the Skykomish River drainage area from Snohomish to Skykomish are mobilizing at a grass roots level because there has been no leadership from Snohomish County officials at any level to even draw attention to the problems at a minimum.
Everyone acknowledges that it is a federal highway, but it also runs through our county. I am sure our elected officials are working quietly behind the scenes with Congressman Larson and Senators Murray and Cantwell. They just don’t want to talk about it in public. It might jeopardize possible funding.
They all busted their butts to get the Wild Sky issue worked through the congress, and we all know how that will benefit our area. I think our county elected official from district 5 was doing all he could to satisfy the tree huggers on that one. I am just wondering how he is working to benefit the rest of us. And safety along US 2 would qualify.
At the state level things are not much better. There were a couple events in the recent past that drew attention to cable barriers along a stretch of I-5 (another part of the federal system). Sadly, there were fatalities associated with those events. I am not minimizing the tragedy suffered by those families, but the response to fatalities on Interstate 5 was that the State of Washington allocated and spent tens of millions of dollars to retrofit the cable barriers for many miles.
My first question would be “Are cable barriers a technology that is acceptable for highways of this classification?” I would assume the answer is “yes”, otherwise they would not be in use in so many locations. Then I would ask “Were the cable barriers installed correctly?” If they were not, then do we have recourse with the contractor that installed them? But if they were installed the way they were intended, we would have to assume these were just unfortunate accidents. I wonder if there will be more failed cable barriers? At least travelers on I-5 get cable barriers. On US 2, we get nothing.
My point is that our state leadership responded to a couple tragic accidents along Interstate 5 by spending millions and millions to patch that problem and by comparison after many, many fatalities on a short section of US 2, they put in rumble strips. I can’t help but think if we had local politicians working on this issue that would put their partisanship aside and do the right things for the corridor, “Substantial” improvements could be made. I am not holding out for that!
The first priority in government is the health and safety of the constituents. I see the cities working on their issues along the US 2 corridor, the people getting killed are their family members. I don’t see county government doing a thing except throwing a few traffic cops on the road for revenue generation purposes.
Maybe “Snohomish County Tomorrow” could be talking about cooperative planning and lobbying to get meaningful attention focused on the problems.
Posted on June 17, 2008 at 6:16 am in Snohomish County Political Commentary, Snohomish Washington | RSS feed
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No Loss for Words
HEALTH & SAFETY ALONG HIGHWAY 2
by Steve DanaThere has been a lot written in the papers lately about congestion and safety issues on US Highway 2 between Snohomish and Stevens Pass. The roadway is only two lanes wide east of SR 9. The folks that live in the Skykomish River drainage area from Snohomish to Skykomish are mobilizing at a grass roots level because there has been no leadership from Snohomish County officials at any level to even draw attention to the problems at a minimum.
Everyone acknowledges that it is a federal highway, but it also runs through our county. I am sure our elected officials are working quietly behind the scenes with Congressman Larson and Senators Murray and Cantwell. They just don’t want to talk about it in public. It might jeopardize possible funding.
They all busted their butts to get the Wild Sky issue worked through the congress, and we all know how that will benefit our area. I think our county elected official from district 5 was doing all he could to satisfy the tree huggers on that one. I am just wondering how he is working to benefit the rest of us. And safety along US 2 would qualify.
At the state level things are not much better. There were a couple events in the recent past that drew attention to cable barriers along a stretch of I-5 (another part of the federal system). Sadly, there were fatalities associated with those events. I am not minimizing the tragedy suffered by those families, but the response to fatalities on Interstate 5 was that the State of Washington allocated and spent tens of millions of dollars to retrofit the cable barriers for many miles.
My first question would be “Are cable barriers a technology that is acceptable for highways of this classification?” I would assume the answer is “yes”, otherwise they would not be in use in so many locations. Then I would ask “Were the cable barriers installed correctly?” If they were not, then do we have recourse with the contractor that installed them? But if they were installed the way they were intended, we would have to assume these were just unfortunate accidents. I wonder if there will be more failed cable barriers? At least travelers on I-5 get cable barriers. On US 2, we get nothing.
My point is that our state leadership responded to a couple tragic accidents along Interstate 5 by spending millions and millions to patch that problem and by comparison after many, many fatalities on a short section of US 2, they put in rumble strips. I can’t help but think if we had local politicians working on this issue that would put their partisanship aside and do the right things for the corridor, “Substantial” improvements could be made. I am not holding out for that!
The first priority in government is the health and safety of the constituents. I see the cities working on their issues along the US 2 corridor, the people getting killed are their family members. I don’t see county government doing a thing except throwing a few traffic cops on the road for revenue generation purposes.
Maybe “Snohomish County Tomorrow” could be talking about cooperative planning and lobbying to get meaningful attention focused on the problems.
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Posted on June 17, 2008 at 6:16 am in Snohomish County Political Commentary, Snohomish Washington | RSS feed | Reply | Trackback URL