Monthly Archives: November 2020

More Future Traffic Problems

Public Service Announcements, Safety

Wayne Reibold has alerted us to another future traffic problem at the bottom of Shaw Road. The City of Puyallup is looking at a huge expansion of warehouse space in what was formally Knutson Farms, between East Pioneer and East Maine. This will adversely impact the traffic entering and leaving Shaw Rd. at East Pioneer or East Maine.

Please go to the link below and check it out.  This is just another example  of the failure to have a realistic traffic plan for this area, and we the residents are the ones who will suffer for the lack of foresight.

http://www.cityofpuyallup.org/civicalerts.aspx?AID=1020 

Increasing Traffic on 122nd St East – Its Going to get WORSE – Much WORSE

Neighborhood Activity, Neighborhood Security, Public Service Announcements, Safety

Below is a note that one of our neighbors in the Shawnee Ridge development is sending to the people of Shawnee Ridge.  I think it contains some good information about concerns all of us should have. Exiting from any area on to 122nd St E has gotten much more difficult over the last two years, and it is going to get worse, much worse. Unless we act now we are going to find ourselves with long waits to get out of our areas/driveways, followed by a mad dash hoping not to be smashed by approaching vehicles.

I know the situation is dangerous as it is now.  One day I stopped at Military Rd. E. and 122nd St. E., checked for traffic and pulled out smartly on to 122nd St. E. going west. I had gone only 30 to 40 yards on 122nd when a vehicle whizzed by on my left, cut in front of me and sped away.  I have no idea how fast he was going, but am glad he missed me and the oncoming traffic.

“Signatures needed on Petition at SR162traffic.com.” 

“if you are concerned about privacy please note that you only need to fill in the starred boxes at SR162traffic.com petition to register your concern.  The more signatures we can get the better we hope it will be for traffic in our neighborhood.”

Neighborhood HOA

I live in the Shawnee Ridge HOA and have been involved in the SR162 Community Group for almost a year.  You may have seen our signs on SR162 advertising our Website, “SR162traffic.org”.  Our main focus right now is to try and stop Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) from building a roundabout at SR162 and 128th street.  You can go to our Website to learn more but let me explain briefly how a roundabout at 128th street impacts your homeowners. 

Tehaleh is the largest development in Washington State.  Close to 10,000 homes are expected to be built in this development at completion.  For the month of October Tehaleh sold an average of 12 homes a week.  In order for the builder to continue to keep building these homes the county is requiring them to build a four lane road from their development down to 128th and SR162.  WSDOT has no plans to expand SR162 to handle this additional traffic which is expected to increase SR162 traffic by 150%. 

This has a direct impact to traffic on Military road and south hill.  Traffic wanting to go west are expected to use Military road to get off the gridlock of SR162.  When the new road to Tehaleh opens up, the traffic on military is expected to increase 135% to 150%.   In addition, if the roundabout is allowed to be installed at 128th, the next roundabout is planned for SR162 and Military road.  A total of 11 roundabouts are planned between Orting and SR410.  Once the Military roundabout is installed there will be few breaks in traffic that will allow you to get onto Military Road/122nd St. E.

This is the primary reason I am involved with the SR162 Group.  We need traffic signals on SR162 to provide breaks in traffic.  We will also need traffic signals on Military Road so we can get out of our neighborhoods safely. 

We have been discussing improvements for the Military Road corridor with the county transportation division that would help with the safety issues but they are years away. 

We are asking that you would join us in stopping these roundabouts by communicating the information provided here to your residents so that they all know about this future traffic mess.   We also have a petition on our website SR162traffic.org that we are asking everyone to sign that requests the state to do required reviews that would look at the traffic impacts of a roundabout.  This petition will be provided to our legislators in Olympia who we are already talking to, to get them to demand traffic signals instead of roundabouts on SR162.

SR162 Community Group

Elvin Lerew email etlerew@hotmail.com