SEQUIM – Seven grim faces looked out from the Sequim City Council’s high desk this week as a state Department of Transportation official delivered unpopular news.
Kevin Dayton, Transportation’s Olympic region administrator, told the council on Monday night that Sequim is expected to get a “safety rest area” in 2009, but that it’s not likely to have a complete highway interchange to serve it.
The state will spend about $2 million on a rest stop off U.S. Highway 101 near Simdars Road.
But it has not budgeted the money to build a westbound highway entrance nor an eastbound exit, Dayton said.
Sequim will have to make do with the existing eastbound on-ramp and westbound off-ramp – which city leaders say aren’t adequate.
Dayton, however, said scores of accidents, “attributable to fatigued drivers,” have occurred along U.S. Highway 101 on the North Olympic Peninsula in recent years.
A rest stop is the state’s prescription, and after considering 26 locations, Transportation found Sequim was best.
“You’re going to be creating more of a hazard,” by forcing traffic, including large trucks up Washington Street, said Sequim Mayor Walt Schubert.
“We already have people making U turns,” since motorists who’ve exited Highway 101 at Simdars can’t find a westbound on-ramp.
All Dayton could say was that Transportation will “analyze the traffic” and look for ways to mitigate it.
