Can Highway 2 handle more growth?
WSDOT says West Plains growth advanced before the transportation analysis included the proposed density, failing Highway 2 intersections, needed improvements, or their cost. The question is who will pay and when the work will occur.
“Highway 2, the primary east-west route, is reaching failure at the busier intersections, which was actually confirmed in the DEIS.”
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Good afternoon, all. Greg Figg, Washington State Department of Transportation. We'd also sent in comments earlier today on that, which you should have, too, in your packet. One of our comments on this is what we're typically used to seeing is the EIS process kind of yield and produce a preferred alternative. When we reviewed the draft EIS, we had certainly some comments, and one area in particular was the purple area on the west plains out there, where we noticed the DEIS, the transportation analysis did not model that land use to the density that is being proposed in the maps. And that's a concern because the growth we've seen out there has been extensive. Highway 2, the primary east-west route, is reaching failure at the busier intersections, which was actually confirmed in the DEIS. It also services access to Fairchild Air Force Base, which based on our meeting a few weeks ago with them, we know they're very concerned about their one-hour response travel time to the base. So our concern is to see this as out of alternative three to be presented as a preferred alternative when the comments, the DEIS, were that it needs to be looked at to ensure there can be adequate transportation to serve it. We know, for instance, one intersection, Flint Road Highway 2, will reach failure, and without more analysis, what will the cost be to serve this area? What will the infrastructure improvements be? We know the city is looking at 18th and 21st, and 6th and 12th, but will they be adequate to provide for this growth? The concern we have is the DEIS did not, and that's detailed in our comments, did not analyze that to the extent it needed to, to come up with a list of improvements. That's just one of the areas that we know that we have some concerns, but typically, the EIS process itself will look at the impacts and then come up with a preferred alternative. And in this case, while the DEIS is done, the comments that would yield a better analysis, which is typically with the final EIS, are not yet done. But at this point, we're picking the preferred alternative without full knowledge of what its impacts will have. So, thank you.