Summer is just around the corner — which means it’s time for local cities to update their six-year Transportation Improvement Plans.
For those not in the know, the Transportation Improvement Plan, or TIP, is a document municipalities update every year by July 1 to show the state the myriad street and transportation-related projects which are on the books for the near future.
Nothing in these TIPs are set in stone, but cities are required to maintain their list of transportation projects if they want to receive grant funding from the state and federal governments.
Here’s a quick look at what Enumclaw and Black Diamond have in store for their residents in the next several years. (Buckley officials plan to present their TIP to the city council June 22.)
ENUMCLAW — SHORT AND SWEET
The city of Enumclaw recently completed several large-scale projects — including the new Semanski Street and Warner Avenue roundabout by the local high school — so its TIP list is rather concise, without any major expenditures.
The city council adopted the 2022-2027 TIP during its regularly-scheduled meeting on May 24, after a public hearing.
The most expensive project out of the 21 listed is some intersection improvements from state Route 410 to SR 164.
“It will be a WSDOT project to remove the bottleneck at SR 410 Westbound (Roosevelt alignment) at the intersection with SR 164 (Griffin Ave),” said Enumclaw’s Public Works Director Jeff Lincoln. “This will revise the signals at this intersection, and create 4 lanes from Watson Street east.”
The project, expected to cost around $850,000, is slated for construction next year.
Another expensive project is pavement rehab from SR 410 to Beringer Street. Construction is expected to begin in 2022, and the project’s forecasted cost is around $700,000.
The city expects to shell out another $700,000 for pedestrian improvements between McHugh Avenue and Thunder Mountain Middle School; construction is expected to begin in 2025.
In total, Enumclaw has roughly $6 million in various TIP projects for the next six years. However, the city won’t have to foot the entire bill by itself — more than $1 million of that cost is being covered by the city’s Transportation Benefit District, and another $2.6 million is expected to be covered by state funds, specifically from the state Transportation Improvement Board.
Unfortunately, the city also expects grant money from the state board to become unavailable to them in the very near future.
“The city has been very fortunate in having received substantial grants from the Transportation Improvement Board (TIB) annually,” Lincoln wrote in a staff report. “However the city faces a substantial loss of funding should the assessed value of the city exceed $2 billion, as expected in the next one to two years. That threshold will make the city ineligible for pavement preservation funding.”
BLACK DIAMOND — ROUNDABOUTS AND MORE
The Black Diamond City Council introduced its TIP during a June 3 public hearing, and aims to formally approve the plan on June 17.
Black Diamond has 30 projects outlined in this year’s TIP, which extends all the way out in 2027 and beyond. In total, the cost of all the projects comes to an estimated $26.3 million, though the city won’t have to cover that bill alone.
By far the priciest project will be the installation of two one-lane roundabouts at the intersection of Roberts Drive, state Route 169, and Black Diamond Ravensdale Road. This whole project is expected to be tackled in 2023, and looks to cost upward of $10 million, but the vast amount of funding (if not 100 percent of it) is being provided by the housing developer Oakpointe.
Oakpointe is responsible for the new Ten Trails housing development in Black Diamond.
Similarly, a $3.2 million project connecting state Route 169 to Lawson Street at a second intersection — an arterial to be known as Lawson Parkway — is also to be paid for by Oakpointe; the project is slated to begin in 2027.
Another $1.4 million developer-funded project will turn the intersection of 216th Avenue SE and SE 288th Street intersection into a roundabout. The city is hoping this project will begin around 2026.
Finally, Oakpointe is also expected to cover two additional $1 million projects. The first is creating a new arterial off SR 169 to to-be-built commercial and multi-family housing via a roundabout, and the second is improving the existing corner of Lawson Street and SR 169 with a new signal to help vehicles and pedestrians move through the intersection. Both projects are expected to start in 2026.
Of course, Black Diamond has its own share of pricy projects to tackle, the most expensive of which is slated for 2023. Residents will see a stretch of 224th Avenue SE turn into a bridge to allow the Covington Creek to flow unimpeded underneath. This project is expected to cost around $2.2 million, with most of the money coming from King County Flood Control District grants.
The city will also be responsible for tackling a $1.75 million project improving Roberts Drive from SR 169 to the Black Diamond Library, a stretch of road about a half-mile long. According to city documents, improvements include widening the road, road overlay, and adding/improving street lights and stormwater utilities. The city hopes to tackle this project in 2024.
