Issaquah-Hobart Road study gets go-ahead

County Council approves funds to examine traffic safety and improve traffic flow

A study of ways to improve safety on the Issaquah-Hobart Road while streamlining traffic flow is now moving ahead, thanks to approval of funding today by the Metropolitan King County Council.

“I am pleased that we can finally get to work on studying the congestion and safety issues on the Issaquah-Hobart Road,” said Metropolitan King County Councilmembers Reagan Dunn. “The road continues to get more congested, which is affecting our quality of life and the safety of our community.”

The study provides $50,000 for studying traffic and safety issues and $250,000 for initial improvements. These improvements could be small projects such as signal synchronization or intersection channelization that would significantly improve traffic flow. The study will look at the short- and long-range solutions for addressing traffic and safety issues in the corridor.

“I anticipate sitting down with our Roads Services Division staff soon to develop a scope of work for the study that should include public engagement in the process,” said Dunn. “Hopefully, we can have meaningful information by the end of the year.”

The supplemental budget ordinance adopted today makes $300,000 available for use by the Roads Services Division in 2008.

Councilmember Dunn and County Executive Ron Sims had previously agreed to the study but the funds had been held up awaiting adoption of a supplemental budget that contained the funding.

King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn represents District 9 including the cities of Bellevue, Black Diamond, Covington, Enumclaw, Kent, Maple Valley, Newcastle, and Renton.