King County and the City of Kirkland have used federal funding to build an Intelligent Transportation System corridor along Northeast 124th Street.

Throughout King County arterial roadways are increasingly congested from growing traffic volumes and spillover from overcrowded freeways. The big dollars needed to build new roads are hard to come by, but there are less expensive projects that are making a real difference in congestion relief.

The King County Department of Transportation recently learned that $2 million has been earmarked in the 2005 federal budget for the countywide signal program – just one of the tools in King County’s innovative Intelligent Transportation System (ITS).

The King County Road Services Division has a comprehensive attack with a variety of approaches and alternatives to fight traffic congestion. The ITS program consists of signal synchronization, and Advanced Traffic Management to improve traffic flow and decrease congestion on major road corridors in unincorporated King County. The county frequently partners with local cities on the projects where key corridors connect communities.  

Signal synchronization can achieve reductions in travel time and fuel consumption, with corresponding improvements in air quality, improved safety, and less stressed motorists. King County has performed numerous before-and-after studies with results showing synchronization has reduced travel times between 20 percent and 45 percent in the peak direction of travel.

The ITS projects that include Advanced Traffic Management feature installation of equipment to: coordinate signals; monitor traffic flow using video and data stations; report traffic conditions to motorists using the Internet; and remote operation of the signals by staff in the King County Traffic Control Center over a fiber-optic communications system. Projects that involve partnering with other agencies typically provide a link between the traffic control centers of the partnering agencies to allow for sharing of data, video and operation of signals.

Next February, the Road Services Division will complete its first major ITS corridor project along Northeast 124^th Street between 100^th Avenue Northeast in Kirkland to State Route 202 near Redmond.

The goal is to improve traffic flow along the 2.6-mile corridor, which is heavily used by Eastside commuters, through synchronization of the corridor’s 10 signals and use of other technology and techniques. This project includes the installation of Advanced Traffic Management features, as well as a changeable lane assignment sign that converts one through lane into a shared through and left turn lane during the peak hour when the left turn movement is over capacity. This type of improvement provides increased capacity – when necessary – during peak hours, without adding additional lanes.

King County’s partners on the project are the City of Kirkland and the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). The federal government is contributing approximately $2.34 million.

In 2004, the county received $1.5 in federal funding that is being divided between three ITS projects and a Regional ITS Implementation Plan. The three ITS projects, which are now in the design phase, are:

• South 277th Street between West Valley Highway and South 55th Street, a partnership with the cities of Kent and Auburn and WSDOT;     
• Avondale Road/Novelty Hill Road between State Route 520 and Novelty Hill Road, and Novelty Hill Road between Avondale and 208th Avenue Northeast – both partnerships with the City of Redmond and WSDOT; and
• 140th Avenue Southeast between State Route 169 and Petrovitsky Road.

The Regional ITS Implementation Plan will include a study of existing ITS plans, existing and proposed communication infrastructure, and future communication needs to provide interconnectivity between different jurisdictions’ traffic, emergency, transit, and freight management centers to share video, data and signal-operation abilities.

The $2 million in federal money that comes to the county in 2005 will expand countywide signal synchronization, and fund additional ITS projects to improve arterial traffic flow throughout the unincorporated area. The projects that are under review for this include:

• Continuation of the South 277th Street ITS project to include South 277th/272nd Street between South 55th Street and State Route 99;
• Continuation of the Avondale ITS to include Avondale Road between Novelty Hill Road and Northeast 133rd Street;
• 100th Avenue Northeast between Northeast 124th Street and Simonds Road; and
• Juanita-Woodinville Road between 100th Avenue Northeast and the I-405 onramps.

Top

The recently approved 2005 federal budget also contained funding for two additional King County Department of Transportation projects and partnerships:

·        King County Metro Transit received $5 million, which will be applied toward the purchase of the 213 hybrid clean-air buses that Metro ordered earlier this year. Almost of all those buses are in service now. 

·        King County Metro Transit and Flexcar will be deciding jointly on how to spend $2 million in new federal funding for programs that bring car sharing to low-income communities.

Top

November was a record-setting month for Metro’s Access program, which provides customized transportation to people with disabilities.

On Nov. 10, the Accessible Services staff had the single highest service day ever with 4,195 passenger boardings. But the record barely lasted a week. It was eclipsed on Nov. 18 with a total of 4,202 daily boardings.

For the month of November, total boardings were 87,913 – an 11 percent increase over the same month last year.

Top

Here is a list of King County Department of Transportation projects that may disrupt traffic and travel in the coming weeks:

Northeast 124th Street, north of Redmond -  The expanded bridge on Northeast 124th Street is now open, and the entire project between Willows Road and State Route 202 is almost complete. Crews will be working in the area during the next few weeks on landscaping, finish work, and clean up.

South 277th Street, between Auburn and Kent - Motorists may experience periodic traffic disruptions on South 277th Street between the West Valley Highway and 72nd Avenue South through October 2005 as a result of a major reconstruction project.

Top