Although Chris Beach calls the situation “growing pains,” he likes the progress the city of Bothell is making on its Wayne Curve Project.
The $21.6 million project began about a year-and-a-half ago and is planned to relieve congestion on State Route 522 at the 96th Avenue Northeast intersection. In a recent interview, Bothell City Manager Bob Stowe said the project is on target to be completed by the end of the year — its scheduled finish point.
Business owners have dealt with digging near their lots and workers have set up barrels and construction equipment in inconvenient spots, but Beach is impressed with the sharper-looking roadway and lighting in the area.
“Any time there’s a roadway project, it’s going to have impacts. We appreciate those businesses. We’ve tried to work with those businesses as much as we can,” said Stowe, noting that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.
Beach manages Bothell Auto Rebuild and Collision, which has been in the area for 17 years and sits on the 1700 block of Bothell-Way Northeast.
“I knew it (was going to happen),” he said of the Wayne Curve Project being on the city’s docket for improvements. “I’m happy that it’s about to be (finished). We’ll get by — we’ll manage. It’s a toughie.
“They’ve cleaned it up a lot. It’s the entrance to the city, I think it’s what Bothell is looking for,” Beach added. “I’m hoping that the traffic will flow better in the morning.”
Next door to Beach at the Preservation Kitchen, owner Susan Southwick said that construction has affected her business and hopes the project will finish soon so customers can cleanly turn into her restaurant. It’s been a long process and it’s been stressful at times, she added.
The project will feature transit queue lanes in each direction, center medians, a new gateway sign and improvements in the Red Brick Road Park area, according to the city’s Web site.
OTHER CITY PROJECTS
• The city’s Crossroads Project was delayed because it faced some environmental regulatory issues that arose in the last six months. Stowe said they’ve completed those plans — including installing fish-friendly culverts in the roadway — and are ready to assemble a bid package this winter and have work begin in the spring on the project’s final phase.
“At one point, we had anticipated that construction to be under way now,” said Stowe, noting funding in on target for the project.
“When we have a known cost, that will give us certainly far more confidence in how we go forward with other projects,” he added about Crossroads, “because that’s a pretty big piece.”
The project will feature the realignment of State Route 522 through the former Bothell Landing area, creating two new downtown blocks that will extend Main Street with new pedestrian-oriented development.
• Although Bellevue’s Wallace Properties won’t be purchasing the lot next to the future McMenamins site — where it planned to develop 225 apartments and about 10,000 square feet of retail — Stowe noted that the city is close to negotiating a purchase-and-sale agreement with another developer.
• As for McMenamins, its plans are to transform the W.A. Anderson Building into one of its hotel-pubs by March 2014, Stowe said. That project was delayed by nine months because of environmental issues, as well, but everything is now set and brothers Brian and Mike McMenamin were in town recently with their team of architects and designers. Stowe said they’re excited to get the project rolling.
For more information on other projects, visit www.ci.bothell.wa.us.
