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 Omak’s “Wal-Mart” intersection begins Thursday and should be complete by the end of the month. Seven rear-end collisions in the last three years at the only traffic signal on US 97 between East Wenatchee and the Canadian border prompted a project to install “Prepare to Stop When Flashing” beacons on US 97 at the intersection with SR 215. Wal-Mart and Home Depot contributed $7,500 in addition to a state grant to fund this $21,000 Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) safety improvement.

“These beacons flash when the light is about to turn red, so 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 600 to 700 feet in advance of the intersection on north and south bound US 97. The intersection has an average daily traffic count of 5,800 vehicles, many of them trucks, traveling at 60 mph.

Advanced warning beacons have been installed over the past six years at five intersections on US 2 between Monitor and Peshastin in Chelan County. 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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