Sumner-Tapps Highway Guardrail Work

Thank you for your input and question.  We looked at the safety benefits very closely before deciding to reconfigure the lanes.  We have had fatalities and serious injuries on the roadway in the past.  This roadway segment is one of the most dangerous roadways in Sumner City Limits and is not up to today's safety standards.  Our goal is to reduce the number and severity of crashes into the future.  This configuration deletes the hill climb lane but uses the roadway width for a 2’ painted median on the centerline with rumble strips and shoulders that are 6-8 feet wide rather than 0-2 feet wide.  This shifts vehicles away from the edge of roadway and guardrails while providing a buffer between oncoming traffic lanes.  

We didn't take this decision lightly and committed City resources specifically to establish the best lane configuration. We reached out beyond City resources to traffic engineering experts on how best to optimize the safety and efficiency of this roadway.  Our traffic consultant recommended this configuration, as it is a safer one that is predicted to reduce crashes on the segment by 26%.  Once we saw this analysis and crash reduction forecasting, we knew that we had to make modifications to the roadway to improve safety in the corridor. 

Thank you for your input.  The City will closely monitor the roadway to determine how successfully or unsuccessfully the reconfiguration operates.  Incidents of vehicles following trucks will be analyzed specifically.  Regarding emergency vehicles, the situation has improved significantly with a shoulder available for motorists to utilize to pull over and let emergency vehicles through.  A barrier was considered but would prevent vehicles from making left turns into driveways or private roadways along the roadway segment.  A barrier is more appropriate for higher-speed roadways.

Thank you for your questions.  The City of Sumner worked with an engineering consultant, Transpo Group, to analyze the existing situation and best configuration for the roadway.  The consultant provided the memorandum included in the documents section of this web site.  The City will closely monitor the roadway to determine how successfully or unsuccessfully the reconfiguration operates.  The roadway had been in the 2-lanes-up 1-lane-down configuration for many years.

Thank you for your detailed questions and the time you took to write your provide your input:

1. The City of Sumner has designated truck routes.  In general, trucks must use these routes to travel to or through Sumner except for local delivery and pick up, which should use the shortest route available to and from a designated truck route.  Sumner-Tapps Highway is not one of Sumner’s designated truck routes.  Here’s a link to a map of Sumner’s designated truck routes.  https://sumnerwa.gov/living/business/truck-routes/.  
2. Considering the businesses and residences in the area, it would be difficult to restrict truck traffic on the corridor more than it already is.  
3. From a liability perspective, the engineering consultant concluded that the reconfiguration is forecast to reduce crashes by 26%.  While I’m not an expert in legal liability, it is difficult to dismiss an engineering study recommendation that forecasts the significant reduction of crashes.
4. The City encourages everyone to follow Washington State laws.
5. The City will continue to monitor vehicular movement in the corridor in the coming months and determine if signage is appropriate.  
6. The City will continue to monitor vehicular movement in the corridor.  The previous configuration would not meet today’s design standards without significant widening.  It would be significantly expensive to widen the corridor in the future.  Much will depend on development and traffic volumes, but widening does not seem likely in the near-term.

Thank you for your question and input.  The reconfiguration of the roadway replaces the hill climb lane with shoulder width on both sides of the roadway and a painted median to better separate traffic.  The roadway will be a "no passing" zone.  

Thank you for your question.  The City of Sumner worked with an engineering consultant, Transpo Group, to analyze the existing situation and best configuration for the roadway.  The consultant provided the memorandum included in the documents section of this web site.  The City will closely monitor the roadway to determine how successfully or unsuccessfully the reconfiguration operates.

Thank you for your input. While we don’t plan to mark the shoulder as a bicycle lane, a substantial shoulder with a rumble strip separating thru lanes from the shoulder provides an improved experience for pedestrians and bicyclists. And the roadway surface will be much smoother after the overlay. 

Thank you for your input and question.  We looked at the safety benefits very closely before deciding to reconfigure the lanes.  We have had fatalities and serious injuries on the roadway in the past.  This roadway segment is one of the most dangerous roadways in Sumner City Limits and is not up to today's safety standards.  Our goal is to reduce the number and severity of crashes into the future.  This configuration deletes the hill climb lane but uses the roadway width for a 2’ painted median on the centerline with rumble strips and shoulders that are 6-8 feet wide rather than 0-2 feet wide.  This shifts vehicles away from the edge of roadway and guardrails while providing a buffer between oncoming traffic lanes.  

We didn't take this decision lightly and committed City resources specifically to establish the best lane configuration. We reached out beyond City resources to traffic engineering experts on how best to optimize the safety and efficiency of this roadway.  Our traffic consultant recommended this configuration, as it is a safer one that is predicted to reduce crashes on the segment by 26%.  Once we saw this analysis and crash reduction forecasting, we knew that we had to make modifications to the roadway to improve safety in the corridor. 

The City's goal with the upcoming projects is a preserved roadway surface with replaced guardrails up to today's standards, roadside clear zones free of obstructions or protected by safety features, and a safer experience for all roadway users utilizing low-cost safety features such as increased shoulder width and rumble strips to increase driver awareness.  These measures are expected to decrease crashes overall and lessen crash severity.  

Thank you for your input and concerns and taking the time to contact us.

You are correct, these projects are not going to improve traffic congestion.  The resurfacing project is a roadway preservation project (so that the existing roadway doesn't degrade to rubble) and the guardrail project safety preservation project (so that we bring our guardrails up to current standards, replace end-of-life rail and soon-to-be rotting wood posts, extend guardrail longer where needed).  The resurfacing project is an opportunity to reconfigure lanes, as there will be a new roadway surface with no existing lines.

This roadway segment is responsible for 25% of all serious injury crashes on city-maintained roadways within Sumner city limits.   When repainting lanes, we analyzed how best to simultaneously improve safety in the corridor and determined rumble strips and increased shoulders to be of great safety benefit. We’ve posted a memo that outlines the issue and provides information on the safety benefit.  The reconfiguration is projected to decrease crashes by 26% and provide space for all roadway users with the repurposing of roadway surface to include 6' minimum width shoulders (in most cases the shoulder will be larger, like 8-9’ in width).  

Slow-moving vehicles will cause some slowdowns, but the level of service will remain within policy limits set in City transportation planning documents.  Some motorists may choose to use other routes to head north from SR 410. As the segment is only one mile long, the potential delay is limited.  Sumner-Tapps Highway will still be the fastest route for the majority of current users.  

Regarding enforcement, the existing configuration provided no locations for police to safely pull over a vehicle.  The new shoulder will allow more room for enforcement activities.  

Regarding a sidewalk, the shoulder will act as a location for pedestrians and bicyclists to use the roadway while not expanding the roadway footprint.  Adding a sidewalk would likely occur outside of the existing roadway pavement, which with the steep vertical slopes common on both sides of the roadway, would be costly and beyond the scope of the preservation and safety projects.  A sidewalk would be nice, I agree.