Corridor study widens as area traffic increases

Published 12:46 pm Thursday, December 11, 2008

By Dennis Box

The Courier-Herald

Cars , cars, always more cars.

Pierce County engineers are looking at a bulging bag of traffic on the south Plateau with more cars on the way, and the solution is still not within reach.

County engineers were directed by the Pierce County Council in January of 2003 to conduct a study of the Rhodes Lake Road corridor and find a solution to help traffic moving east-west off the Plateau. The idea was to figure out if a new road should be built or if Rhodes Lake Road should just be improved.

Rhodes Lake Road runs east-west from 198th Avenue East to McCutcheon Road East.

The corridor project staff, lead by Pierce County Transportation Planning Supervisor Jesse Hamashima, held a environmental scoping meeting Oct. 5. The public meeting was designed to inform the public and gather information on the environmental issues surrounding the project.

Hamishima said 88 people signed in although more were in attendance. More than 33 written comments were gathered and additional oral testimony was taken.

The statements and testimony at the meeting have been processed by Hamashima and his staff and the information has brought into focus the complexity of problem.

"A number of citizens felt that the study should investigate the possibility of developing a new alignment both north and south of the corridor that could alleviate the need for a new or improved roadways in the Rhodes Lake Road Corridor," Hamashima wrote in an e-mail response. "The South Plateau Connection Merit and Value Study is charged with answering the broader questions of impacts, cost and approach."

The South Plateau Connection would involve a road extending over the Carbon River into Orting and connecting to state Route 162, a plan introduced and supported by the Puyallup Valley Preservation Group.

Heading north, 214th Avenue East would be improved and connected directly to North Tapps Parkway.

Driving the studies and worries about traffic are two pending developments in the region, Cascadia and Falling Water. Combined, the projects will bring 15,000 people to the area over the next 20 years.

The 1,000-home Falling Water project has started its first phase of 115 homes.

Cascadia developers hope to start building next fall.

Both developments promise high-quality homes, planned communities - and people.

Cascadia, with 6,700 homes, intends to bring light-industrial businesses to the community. But many of these residents will still drive to a job, the stores, baseball games and movies on and off the Plateau, often times around, through and past Bonney Lake.

"The county has sponsored to this Cascadia fiasco," said Steve Burnham, chairman of the Bonney Lake Planning Commission. "It is totally against the GMA (Growth Management Act), yet they authorized it. It is a money thing and it has created a huge problem for Bonney Lake. All we can do is raise the issue."

The next step for the county is less certain than an up or down decision on Rhodes Lake Road. A draft environmental impact statement is scheduled for November 2005, but as the region's population increases, the traffic impact widens and the stakes get higher.

"The latter mentioned open house contributed to the study's progress in that it indicates a need for the county to review the possibilities of other roadway improvements," Hamashima wrote.

With transportation money at premium and traffic increasing steadily, Hamishima stated the answers will not be easy and the solution is likely to encompass a larger area.

Dennis Box can be reached at dbox@cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/courierherald.