Currently new roads are being approved or updated without looking first at what the end result of those projects will be. Three good examples come readily to mind.
- Shaw Rd. E. on Puyallup’s South hill was closed for many months, which forced traffic to find alternate routes to areas south of Puyallup. Traffic increased on Military Rd./122nd E. as a result, and when Shaw Rd. E. reopened it was with a series of planters down the middle and an extra wide sidewalk on the east side. Effectively it is still a two-lane road, which now will be more costly to widen because of the useless planters and wide sidewalk.
- A new road has been approved from the huge Tehaleh subdivision to SR162 in the valley. This will route more vehicles up Military Rd. E./122nd E.
- A new 120-unit subdivision is being constructed on the corner of Shaw Rd. E. and 122nd E. The planners stated that it would put almost 1000 new trips per day on 122nd St. E. yet would “have no significant impact on traffic in the area”.
In all three cases the result has been/will be greatly increased traffic on 122nd St. E. with vehicles trying to get to South Meridian and/or points south. Already Military Rd. E. is a virtual parking lot at certain times of the day.
I live east of Shaw Rd. E. and must take 122nd St. E. to access the main part of South Hill unless I want to go down into the valley and take SR 162 in a very circuitous route. As you know the traffic on 122nd St. E. has increased several fold over what it was as little as seven years ago. I no longer take Military Rd. E. to the intersection of 122nd St. E. and Military Rd. E. when I am going down into the valley as I feel it has become too dangerous to do so. A couple of years ago I was entering 122nd St. E. from Military Rd. E. traveling towards Shaw Rd. E. and had accelerated so that I was a hundred yards or so on 122nd St. E. I was overtaken by a vehicle traveling at a high rate of speed which swerved into the oncoming lane to pass me and then swerved back to miss the oncoming vehicles. Fortunately, this is not a common occurrence, but I remember it many times when I go onto 122nd St. E.
Now we have another potentially serious problem at the corner of Shaw Rd. E. and 122nd St. E. where a housing project with 120 dwellings is being built. I understand that homes 300ft. from the project were notified of it and a yellow sign was posted along Shaw Rd. E. at some time. Since there is no place to pull off and read the sign it was not very informative. Therefore, the project was kept pretty quiet. I understand that it is estimated that the project will generate almost 1000 trips a day, and this was deemed as insignificant. So insignificant that a dedicated turn lane was not even required. When the road from Tehaleh is pushed through and traffic uses 122nd St. E. to access South Hill, South Meridian and all the subdivisions to the south, things will become truly horrible.
It seems to me that Pierce County is going at things backward. They have known for a long time that their plans will funnel traffic through 122nd St. E., turning a sleepy secondary road into a nightmare for residents who live along it. Especially since some homes have driveways which meet 122nd St. E. directly. Would not it have made more sense to first connect 122nd St. E. to S. Meridian even if you had to exercise Imminent Domaine to do so and widen the existing 122nd St. E. to accommodate the increased traffic that other road projects will bring? Or perhaps extend 128th St. E. so that it meets 128th St. E. on the top of South Hill. Instead, Pierce County has chosen to create a problem by not looking at the consequences of their actions and doing things backward. When Pierce County closed Shaw Rd. E. for a long project, people discovered that they could go from the valley and up Military Rd. E./122nd St. E. to bypass the construction on Shaw Rd. E. This greatly increased the traffic on Military Rd. E./122nd St. E., and it remains increased to this day. The plan to drive a new road into the valley from Tehaleh will surely increase the traffic up Military Rd. E./122nd St. E. many fold.
It is past time for Pierce County to be proactive in its road planning and to look at the problems new roads will produce. Then they can start at the correct place to alleviate potential problems the increase in traffic will cause.