Sponsored by Committee for A Better Avondale, your neighbors and friends organizing together to create a safer and healthier community

The Upper Bear Creek Council will hold a forum on 9/27/11 from 7:30-9:00pm at the Woodinville Water District Office (17238 NE Woodinville-Duvall Road).

AGENDA

King County Department of Transportation, Rick Brater, Manager of Engineering Roads Division will provide an overview of a proposed delivery plan to the unincorporated road network and its impacts on citizens.

All interested persons of the community are welcome to attend!

The following report was provided by Rick Brater (KCDOT) to the A Better Avondale Comittee in response to a request for updated information on the Avondale Test Patch testing.

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 Current Noise Monitoring Results

The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) has been performing sound tests for King County and providing the Road Services Division (RSD) with the test data since the construction of the project in April 2010. The table below shows the results from the most recent round of testing which was completed in February 2011The next round of testing is planned for this fall. The test period for this pilot project will conclude in the summer of 2016.

Full data on the testing can be found at the following website:  http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Business/MaterialsLab/QuieterPavement/PavementGrinding.htm

Avondale Road and Novelty Hill Road Traffic Data 

The latest traffic counts available are from the City of Redmond and were taken last year.  The Average Daily Traffic (ADT) is 27,800 for Avondale Road and 19,900 for Novelty Hill Road.  The roads were counted both in the morning and evening during the busiest periods on the road and for Avondale the counts are 1,700 in the morning and 2,100 in the evening. For Novelty, the counts are 1,400 in the morning and 1,700 in the evening.

 Novelty Hill Road

 The Novelty Hill Road project dates back to the land use planning efforts for the Bear Creek Area which culminated in the King County Council adopting the Bear Creek Community Plan in 1989. A major component of this plan was the identification of the Urban Planned Developments (UPDs), Trilogy at Redmond Ridge and Redmond Ridge. The concept at the time was to concentrate development in the UPDs where facilities and services could be provided and maintained in a more efficient manner, while at the same time reducing the development impact elsewhere by lowering densities throughout Bear Creek. The improvement of Novelty Hill Road was critical to serve the UPDs and connect them with the City of Redmond and beyond.  

The County’s commitment to this project began in 1995 as part of a series of Development Agreements between King County and the developers of Trilogy and Redmond Ridge Urban Planned Developments (UPD) on Novelty Hill. 

Following the development agreement there was a Settlement Agreement for the UPDs between King County, the developers, and City of Redmond further committed the County to the completion of the Novelty Hill Road project. 

Avondale Road

Currently, the projects listed in the Transportation Needs Report (TNR) for Avondale Road include mobility, safety and a few capacity projects. These have been included in the TNR for a number of years. For the detail of the various types of projects currently proposed for Avondale Road, see the first page of the project listing for the TNR 2010.  

http://your.kingcounty.gov/kcdot/roads/wcms/planning/tnr2010/Needs_List.pdf

In the early 2000’s, a project that would complete the widening of Avondale Road from NE 132nd Street to Woodinville Duval Road was funded in the capital program.  This project would have widened and repaired the roadway which in turn would have resolved many of the issues you are concerned about. The project was funded in the amount of $8.4M in 2003; however, due to the loss of the Vehicle License Fee resulting from Initiative I-776, the RSD lost its ability to fund this project and four other major capacity improvement projects.  

Unfortunately, our funding situation has continued to decline. As a comparison, our 2003 Six-Year CIP totaled $476M and the equivalent 2011 CIP is now $231M. Given the projected decline in revenue and the increasing demands of a declining roadway infrastructure in Unincorporated King County, the RSD has recently completed an in-depth analysis of the priorities for the Division and the types of projects it intends to fund in the future. This study was titled “The Strategic Plan for Road Services” and can be found on the internet at this address:  http://www.kingcounty.gov/transportation/kcdot/Roads/StrategicPlan.aspx  The County Council approved this plan in December of 2010.

One part of the Strategic Plan for the RSD was to develop and assign a service strategy for each road owned by King County. Under this service strategy, Avondale Road was assigned the highest service level, Tier 1,. Only 7 percent of the County’s roads are included in Tier 1. The good news is that because of its Tier 1 status, Avondale Road will be submitted for grant funding when calls for projects are announced. The next federal transportation funding call occurs in 2012 and, if awarded, funding will be available in 2013. Unfortunately, it is only through successfully competing for these grants will the RSD be able to secure the funding needed for this project.

In addition to applying for the above grants, we will be adding the pavement reconstruction project to the list of identified Avondale Road needs, and this will be included in the Transportation Needs Report 2012. The TNR will be sent to the County Council in March, 2012, for their review and adoption.

Rick Brater of the KCDOT reported the following in January 2011, with respect to noise testing:

“At this time we do not have a scheduled noise test. The sound testing is being conducted by WSDOT’s noise monitoring truck and will occur at the same time the testing is done on SR520. We have contacted the crew that performs the tests and they are planning to be out on SR520 sometime this July. When they establish a definitive date for the testing we will pass that information on to you and as soon as the results are available we will also forward them to you.”

For concrete pavements, the quest for quietness has focused on the use of alternative methods of finishing the wet concrete using textures that produce less tire noise.  In addition, a research effort sponsored by the concrete industry has developed a diamond grinding method forexisting pavements that has produced the quietest concrete pavement ever measured.  This new method, called Next Generation Concrete Surface (NGCS) is being evaluated at two sites in the state. [AVONDALE ROAD IS ONE SUCH SITE] 

A host of factors influences the noise generated by tire and pavement interaction including:

• macro and micro texture
• tire tread configuration
• studded tire wear
• roadway surface openings (voids)
• joints in concrete pavements
• speed of traveling vehicles

SEE MORE DETAILS ABOUT WSDOT QUIETER PAVEMENT TESTING AT: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Business/materialslab/quieterpavement

Well, the Next Generation Grinding test patch on Avondale is complete and the initial results are a vast improvement!

People for a Better Avondale would like to thank Rick Brater, Linda Dougherty and everyone at King County who were involved with the Avondale test patch project.

Noise measurement results will be coming. Keep in mind, the noise results that People for a Better Avondale are most interested in are 1, 2, 3 years from now. The critics of Next Generation Grinding say the noise will be back to original levels at that time. We do hope they are wrong but since this is a test patch it is important to learn from the results.

The goal for People for a Better Avondale is to repave/resurface/regrind Avondale from Woodinville/Duvall Road south 2 miles. The test patch is our first step.

Thanks again to King County Department of Transportation.p>