Legislature approves funding for U.S. 101 barrier design

Installation of Jersey barriers along U.S. Highway 101 from the intersection of Wallace Kneeland Boulevard to state Route 3 in Shelton is one step closer after $2 million in legislative funding was approved March 7 for engineering.

Additional funding will be needed for construction, according to Doug Adamson with the state Department of Transportation.

A WSDOT project document shows the design has been funded but work hasn’t started.

“Barriers are not placed with the assumption that the system will restrain or redirect all vehicles in all conditions. It is recognized that the designer cannot design a system that will address every potential crash situation.

“Instead, barriers are placed with the assumption that, under typical crash conditions, they might decrease the potential for excessive vehicular deceleration or excessive vehicle redirection when compared to the location without the barrier,” according to a WSDOT design manual for traffic barriers.

Jersey barriers, which are narrow at the top and slope down to a wide bottom, are named after New Jersey, the first state to use them for separating lanes of highways in the 1950s.

Jersey barriers “redirect vehicles while minimizing vehicle vaulting, rolling, and snagging,” according to the manual.

The concrete safety barriers should have already been in place, former State Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch, told the Journal.

“They could have done it years ago so much cheaper,” Sheldon said.

Rural areas suffer for project money because state funds are diverted to urban areas, he said.

Seattle gets billions of dollars for infrastructure such as the state Route 99 tunnel, Sheldon said, referring to the tunnel constructed under the city to help divert traffic.

The Seattle project was built with $2.8 billion in state and federal funding, according to a WSDOT budget document.

Sheldon said one-third of state legislators represent King County, so it’s no wonder budget money goes to that area.

In his tenure as senator, Sheldon said he made 3,000 round trips to Olympia from his home in Potlatch, driving Highway 101. He said he always kept to the far righthand lane even if he wasn’t exiting, to avoid and head-on collisions with impaired drivers steering into his lane.

Sheldon said it’s an easy fix because the highway was built with plenty of room to separate lanes.

Mason County “just needs the money,” he said.