ARLINGTON — The city has prioritized 16 projects for its proposed update to its six-year Transportation Improvement Plan, even as it’s experienced delays in implementing one of its Transportation Benefit District projects.
Public Works Director Jim Kelly addressed the City Council on both issues Sept. 2, after a public hearing on the TIP that saw no citizens submit comments.
When council member Jan Schuette asked if 59th Drive at the Arlington Airport was slated for pavement repairs, Kelly explained that it hadn’t already been scheduled for TBD or Puget Sound Regional Council funding because it didn’t fall under the federal functional classification, which it now does.
“That being said, we’re now considering whether we should do more with it, possibly widening it to three lanes for freight,” Kelly said. “So it’s in our TBD goals, but it’s not in our short-term list of repairs.”
While council member Marilyn Oertle approved of the list, she expressed concerns about the condition of the city’s crosswalks.
“We’ve already done our budget for the year, but it’d be a shame to wait on those, especially with school starting back up,” Oertle said.
Kelly said: “We’ll look at our maintenance budget. This list is more about capital improvement projects, to accommodate our city as it expands and grows, consistent with the Growth Management Act.”
Kelly was called back to the podium by City Administrator Allen Johnson to report on the latest status of the pavement preservation on 178th and 179th streets, as well as French Avenue.
“This is our first year in a while of doing pavement preservation,” said Kelly, who touted slurry seals as the most cost-effective method, even as he acknowledged their time-intensive and weather-sensitive requirements relative to regular asphalt. “After an hour, asphalt is cool enough to drive on, but slurry seal takes close to four or six hours to put down.”
The city’s contractor was originally slated to apply slurry seals to the three streets between Aug. 18-19, but the contractor fell behind on other projects and had to reschedule for Aug. 29-30.
“That Friday morning, we had a downpour,” Kelly said, adding that only a portion of French Avenue was completed, but the city has only paid for that portion of work. “The rain kept coming down that Saturday and Sunday, so there was no point in the contractor sticking around. They won’t be able to come back up here until next spring.”
Kelly closed his remarks by pledging to lay down new lines for the crosswalks within the week.
Council member Chris Raezer thanked Kelly for the clarity of this year’s TIP update, posted online at http://arlingtonwa.gov/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=8837.
The council is set to take action on this issue Monday, Sept. 15.
