Date:  Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Contact:

Jeff Adamson, North Central Region Communications Manager, Wenatchee, (509) 667-2815, (509) 669-8778 Cell. E-mail: adamsoj@wsdot.wa.gov

Wick McCurdy, North Central Region Special Projects Engineer, Wenatchee, (509)667-3067, (509) 421-1288 Cell. E-mail: mccurdw@wsdot.wa.gov

WENATCHEE – Work on a project to improve safety at the west end of the Odabashian Bridge, north of Wenatchee, begins Friday and should be complete by the end of the month. A dozen rear-end collisions in the last three years prompted a project to install “Prepare to Stop When Flashing” beacons on US 2/97 at the intersection with Easy Street. A state grant is funding this $40,000 Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) safety improvement.

“These beacons flash when the light is about to turn red, so westbound drivers can start slowing down, knowing they won’t make it to the intersection before the light changes,” said WSDOT North Central Region Traffic Engineer, Jennene Ring, “The legislature provided a special $2.5 million “low cost safety enhancement” program to fund projects that could be built quickly and cost less than $100,000. We submitted seven projects and this was one of three that got funded.”

Motorists shouldn’t expect much traffic impact as the work will close only the shoulders where McCandlish Electric crews will be installing the signs and beacons about 500 feet in advance of the westbound leg of the Easy Street intersection. The intersection has an average daily traffic count of 20,000 vehicles, many of them trucks, traveling at 45 mph coming off the Odabashian Bridge. “There’s also an on-ramp from US 97A, so there’s a combination of both speed and merging/weaving that has contributed to the collisions there,” said Ring.

Advanced warning beacons have been installed over the past six years at five intersections on US 2 between Monitor and Peshastin in Chelan County. A traffic signal currently under construction at the Goodwin/Hay Canyon Road intersection, west of Cashmere, will also feature the advanced warning beacons. Ring said, “They have reduced the number and severity of rear end collisions at those intersections compared to traffic signal controlled intersections without them.” 

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