Road report card: Moses Lake’s busy intersections will only get busier, says a consulting firm

MOSES LAKE — As Seattle-based BERK Consulting Inc. analyzes land use projections in Moses Lake, Perteet, an infrastructure consulting firm with offices in the Puget Sound, Wenatchee and Ellensburg, has been studying the city’s traffic to meet the transportation element of the city’s comprehensive plan.

Determined by the Growth Management Act, the 20-year transportation projection must include land use assumptions, said lead planner Christina Wollman. BERK data shows a 2.4% growth rate in Moses Lake.

It also must include an inventory of its facilities, she said, such as roadways, airports, public transportation and railroads. How will transportation impact state-owned facilities, such as Interstate 90? Mae Valley, for example, must use Interstate 90 to reach town, she said.

Other aspects of the plan include traffic forecasts, identifying needs, pedestrian and bicycle consideration, determining the level of quality and, of course, a way to pay for it all moving forward.

Traffic-flow quality standards rank a lot like student report cards, she said: A to F. An “A” grade would mean a less than 10-second wait at an intersection. An “F” would mean an 80-second or more wait. Moses Lake’s goal is to not fall below D, she said.

According to Perteet’s analysis, the intersection of Stratford Road and Broadway Avenue currently sits at a C or D grade, but based on a 2.4% growth rate over 20 years, the area will fall to an “F.”

The exact same scenario is true of the Stratford Road and Valley Road intersection, she said.

This could be challenging moving forward, said council member Karen Liebrecht, as there are empty lots close by that could be developed in the near future.

There are exceptions to the “F” rule, Wollman said, if there is no possible way of easing the flow of traffic in the intersection. The intersection can remain at an “F” grade if it has determined regional value as well, said city manager Allison Williams, such as a shopping center.

The Revised Code of Washington mandates concurrency requirements, she said, meaning facilities must serve new development for a forecast of six years. For example, if a new facility brings an intersection below a “D” traffic grade, they must find a way to remedy this or the city must deny the facility’s development.

Currently, Moses Lake’s concurrency requirements are very vague, Wollman said, which could lead to inconsistent applications, confused developers or developments not mitigating traffic impacts.

One way of mitigating traffic, of course, is alternate routes, Wollman said. A second lake crossing could lift the rating of some of Moses Lake’s intersections.

“(The second lake crossing is) like the unsacred cow around here,” said council member Dean Hankins. “That project has been worked on since the early or the late ’80s, and it’s the same then as it is now. The big holdup there is obviously funding, as well as the Department of Ecology, but good luck on that one.”

The next steps in the comprehensive plan’s transportation element is to draft solid goals and policies, Williams said. Prior to the July 13 city council meeting, council will similarly discuss the capital facilities element of the comprehensive plan.

Sam Fletcher can be reached at sfletcher@columbiabasinherald.com.