Sammamish presents 5 design options for Issaquah-Fall City Road project

Published 6:17 pm Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Signals or roundabouts? Four lanes or five?

Perhaps a mix of both?

These are the design elements for the Issaquah-Fall City Road improvement project a couple hundred residents considered during the city of Sammamish’s second open house last week.

“The community interest is encouraging,” city Project Manager Sam Park said.

The city wants its overall design to “reflect community priorities and feedback,” according to city documents.

City staff presented five design options for road improvements from 242nd Avenue Southeast to Klahanie DriveSoutheast, ranging in price from $14.9 million to $18.8 million.

This is the first of two phases in which the city plans to address the congested road that sees more than 1,800 vehicles during peak hours.

Construction on this portion of the road is expected to begin in summer 2017 or in 2018. And the design elements chosen during this phase will impact the design of phase two, from Klahanie Drive Southeast to Issaquah-BeaverLake Road.

Phase one includes three intersections: 242nd Avenue Southeast, 247th Place Southeast and Klahanie Drive Southeast. And it includes two road segments. Segment A runs from 242nd Avenue to 247th Place, and Segment B runs from 247th Place to Klahanie Drive.

Currently, the roadway has two lanes with a signal at 247th Place and at Klahanie Drive.

Park said any of the city-presented options would be an improvement to the roadway.

After the city presentation on the options last week, residents were asked to put dots on the designs they liked best.

Option 5, with the majority of stickers and a design that shows signals at two intersections and a five-lane roadway, and option 1, with the second-highest number of stickers and a design that featured all roundabouts at the three intersections, garnered the most approval from residents via this exercise.

Option 1 could cost between $14.9 million and $15.6 million; option 5 comes in between $17.4 million and $18.8 million, as traffic lights cost more and require a wider roadway.

Church traffic and pedestrians — especially children crossings at Pacific Cascade Middle School — were a big concern for Celinda Labrousse of Kirkland.

Labrousse spoke with Councilmember Christie Malchow during the open house about the possibility of adding flags at crosswalks to help with visibility. As a mother of a 3-and-a-half-year-old girl, she said she was greatly concerned about the children walking to and from school along the roadway, especially if they have to cross a roundabout, which she worries will put the children at risk and will slow down traffic.

Labrousse is also a member of the Eastridge Church, located along Issaquah-Fall City Road, and said the intersection at 242nd Avenue needs to be improved. She called the entire roadway “horrid” and worries that these options will not meet the needs of future populations.

Another attendee, Norma Stephens, also a member of the Eastridge Church, said she prefers signals and a five-lane roadway design.

City staff are still working on gathering other comments made to post on the city’s website, city Engineer Andrew Zagars said during the Tuesday City Council meeting.

Staff are also looking at an additional analysis at the 242nd Avenue intersection due to the amount of comments the city received on that, Zagars said.

As the design progresses, the city will continue to seek input on the specific design components and details, such as lighting.

For more information, visit www.sammamish.us/departments/publicworks/projects/IssFallCityRoadWidening.aspx.