Lake Stevens roundabout open

LAKE STEVENS — The new roundabout at Lundeen Parkway and Vernon Road is open for traffic — at least most of it is.

East-west traffic along Lundeen Parkway may proceed through the new roundabout. Access to and from the side roads, Lake Drive and Vernon Road, is still closed.

Lundeen Parkway was closed at the intersection for more than a month, from late March until the beginning of May, while the $1.6 million roundabout was built.

It will probably be another couple of weeks before access to and from the side streets is open, public works director Mick Monken said.

During construction, a section of Vernon Road that runs parallel to Lundeen Parkway was kept open and used for detours. That section is now inaccessible from the roundabout and from the other part of Vernon Road, which runs southwest up the hill toward Frontier Village, Monken said.

Crews had to dig down about 7 feet to rebuild the intersection to make sure the levels of the four approaches matched, he said. Work was slowed somewhat and the cost increased when workers ran into a clay-like material, Monken said. The original $1.5 million budget will increase by about $100,000, he said.

The busy intersection has had numerous accidents and close calls in the past and many people who live in Lake Stevens told city officials they’d like to see something done there. It also gets congested in the afternoons and drivers have had trouble getting onto Lundeen from the side roads during rush hour.

The project was originally financed with $453,431 in federal economic stimulus funds; $500,000 in real-estate excise tax money and $570,000 in other city funds.

Of the city funds, $500,000 comes from an amount set aside when voters agreed to pay a tax directly to Sno-Isle Libraries rather than having the city pay the library district for service.

The Lake Stevens Arts Commission is planning a bald-eagle themed art piece for the center circle, Monken said.

Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439; sheets@heraldnet.com.