MUKILTEO — Each year, millions of cars pass along Mukilteo Speedway — the main road into Old Town Mukilteo — heading to and from the city’s ferry terminal.
During rush hour, especially during the summer, people who live near the busy road are having an increasingly difficult time getting in and out of their neighborhoods. Ferry traffic clogs intersections and blocks side streets. Accidents have become more frequent.
“There’s probably 4,000 cars on this road per day,” said Grant Tenhoff, 47, whose house is close to Mukilteo Speedway. “There’s a lot of traffic here. They’ve got to do something.”
A planned new ferry terminal with a larger holding area would have helped alleviate traffic, but, for several reasons, the state has put those plans on hold indefinitely.
Mukilteo and Everett officials are working together to find a solution.
They want to create a second major route to Mukilteo’s waterfront, possibly by building a new road using a portion of Seaway Boulevard, a road through a wooded area that turns into 36th Avenue W. and ends about two miles from the Mukilteo ferry terminal.
“This is a regional issue,” Marine said. “Mukilteo will still be hosting (the ferry terminal) on the waterfront, but the rest of the region should step up and help out with this as well.”
No cost estimates for a new road have been created, Marine said. The Mukilteo mayor plans to meet soon with state Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond to discuss the state’s long-term plans for alleviating ferry traffic through the city. Marine said he is also willing to discuss widening Mukilteo Speedway, but he believes a new road would be a better plan.
Coming up with the money for a new road in Mukilteo could be a problem, said state Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, chairwoman of the Senate Highways and Transportation Committee.
“I have so many requests to do things somewhere in this state, like U.S. 2,” Haugen said. “It’s an interesting concept, but until we find a new funding source, it isn’t going to be a new project.”
Each year, an estimated 2.2 million cars use the ferry in Mukilteo. That number is expected to rise above 3 million vehicles by 2030, Marine said.
City staff from Everett and Mukilteo are planning to meet soon to discuss options for new ferry commuter routes. Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson recently met with Marine to discuss the issue.
“We’re open to working with them and seeing if there’s a way we could do this,” Stephanson said.
Mukilteo officials envision a new road branching off from Seaway Boulevard, which extends northwest from 20th Avenue W. — the main access road to the Boeing plant — off Highway 526. The road would cut through forested land and through the north end of Japanese Gulch to get to the waterfront. Ferry traffic would be directed to this new road.
Extending Seaway shouldn’t cause extra traffic congestion around the Boeing plant or for other businesses around that area, Marine said. Ferry commuters would be driving a reverse-commute from the current flow of traffic, he said.
Plus, building a new road would be cheaper if it extended from an existing road, Marine said.
For years, Mukilteo residents have debated whether to build a road through Japanese Gulch to solve the ferry traffic problem. The gulch, which has land in Everett and in Mukilteo, has forest and wetlands and is a haven for bikers, runners and walkers — even though most of it is privately owned.
Pat Kessler, a longtime opponent of building a road through the gulch, said building a road to the waterfront without going through the gulch would be difficult, she said.
“I don’t know what the crossover is going to be in (Marine’s) mind, or how it will be accomplished,” Kessler said.
Everett city engineers are not convinced Seaway Boulevard could accommodate so much traffic, Stephanson said. Plus, he doesn’t want to risk creating a traffic problem for Boeing, which had to pay millions of dollars in mitigation fees when it built its manufacturing plant.
However, Everett officials believe a road could be built to the west of the Boeing plant. The road could intersect with a portion of Seaway before heading down to the waterfront along the east side of Japanese Gulch, Stephanson said.
Many people who live near the Mukilteo Speedway believe something needs to be done. Hyong Ahn, 52, said he is tired of driving across two lanes of ferry traffic, plus oncoming traffic, just to leave his neighborhood.
“I think it would be a good thing,” Ahn said. “People who live around here have to fight to get in and out.”
Reporter Scott Pesznecker: 425-339-3436 or spesznecker@heraldnet.com.
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