BOTHELL — Drivers who travel through Bothell on their way to the Eastside might have a little easier time of it now.
A section of Highway 522 has been rebuilt with a new alignment that gets it away from a congested intersection in Bothell’s downtown.
“By realigning (the highway) and shifting it south, it decouples a problem intersection that plagued the city for years and would have continued to fail,” city manager Bob Stowe said.
The new $60 million section opened to traffic on Monday. It’s only about a quarter of a mile long, between NE 180th Street and 101st Avenue NE. The old section, however, tied into a three-way intersection with Highway 527 and Main Street downtown.
With drivers making 46,000 trips per day through that stretch, it was far from an ideal situation.
Highway 527 was extended a short distance to meet the new road. There is a new light there but removing Main Street traffic from the equation will make a huge difference, officials say.
The realignment is part of Crossroads, a longer-term redevelopment of parts of downtown Bothell.
“The Crossroads Project will mean less cut-through traffic in our residential neighborhoods and a quicker commute,” Mayor Mark Lamb said in a written statement.
“This project also represents another major milestone in revitalizing our historic downtown. Crossroads is part of a multi-year effort to redevelop downtown with new residential, retail, office, mixed-use and an expanded park system.”
The old section of Highway 522 will eventually be rebuilt as an extension of Main Street with the aim of attracting more retail businesses. Until that occurs, one lane of the old stretch will remain open to provide access to current businesses, Stowe said.
The new road bisects the location of a former strip mall. The northern half of the parcel will be reserved for retail development while the southern half is targeted for an extension of The Park at Bothell Landing along the Sammamish River, Stowe said.
The city is still rounding up money for the park expansion and Main Street extension, he said. The city’s plans call for those projects to be done next year but it will depend on funding, Stowe said.
The Crossroads plan was hatched in community meetings more than a decade ago. Bothell started setting aside funds for the realignment in about 2005, Stowe said. The city picked up about two-thirds of the cost with the rest coming in grants.
Altogether, the redevelopment plans are expected to ultimately cost $150 million. So far, the city has spent about $93 million combined on road projects, environmental cleanup, property acquisition and planning, Stowe said.
Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439; sheets@heraldnet.com.
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