News and Articles
Radar Sign Update – Delay Due to Weather
Unfortunately our Avondale Permanent Radar Sign project has been temporarily delayed due to the recent snow and flooding conditions.
King County crews are currently making repairs on existing traffic control devices that were causalties from the “20 year storm event“.
In addition, the schedule will be delayed a few weeks to allow soil conditions to normalize before they can auger and pour the concrete foundations for the poles.
This update is courtesy of Scott Sawhill, King County Department of Transportation, Traffic Engineering.
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Great News: Permanent Radar Speed Signs Approved for Avondale!
We were notified this week that King County has approved our request for radar speed signs on Avondale. Two permanent radar signs will be placed on Avondale in early 2009. The lead time is required to order the signs and make arrangements with PSE to install the power. We have asked the County to strongly consider solar-powered signs since they are environmentally-friendly and would not require the PSE hook up. The County is looking into this option.
We are considering the following locations for the signs: a northbound sign between 143th Place and 144th Place and a southbound sign between 159th and Bear Creek Road. The County will attempt to place them in locations where they won’t be intrusive to nearby neighbors. The signs will flash a vehicle’s speed if it is traveling over 40 MPH… a very effective deterrent to speeding. We are grateful to Executive Ron Sims and the King County Road Services Division for assisting us in our efforts to control excessive speeding on Avondale.
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Our Thanks to the Avondale Bible Church!
The Avondale Road Committee appreciates Pastor Mike and the Avondale Bible Church for providing a meeting room for our 11/12/08 meeting with King County Transportation and Roads Divisions. We wanted to hold the meeting on Avondale Road and when the Woodinville and Redmond libraries were both unavailable, we thought of contacting Pastor Mike since the KC Joint Forum had been held there last month. Pastor Mike offered the room and help with set-up, providing a valuable community service. Thanks Pastor Mike!
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Excellent Meetings held with top level King County Officials!
November 12, 2008: Avondale Committee members met with top level King County staff at the Avondale Bible Church to explore options to improve safety and mitigate noise. Linda Dougherty, KC Roads Division Director and Harold Taniguchi, KC Transportation Director provided technical and budgetary information about resurfacing options. We discussed and evaluated the County’s proposal to do a “Pilot Program” in 2009 which would involve doing extensive preparation work and an overlay on 300 feet of Avondale. The Roads Division has inserted estimated funding of $284,000 for this project in the current budget while options are being evaluated and refined. Walter Scott, the asphalt rubber (AR) advocate who was instrumental in obtaining the 520 AR test patch, described the advantages of using AR and success rates in Arizona and other states. Christine Jensen, Policy Director for Kathy Lambert attended and confirmed the support of their office for Avondale improvements. Nancy Stafford of the Upper Bear Creek Community Council offered helpful history on prior efforts to repair the road. The 2-hour meeting was very productive and a fine example of teamwork between the County and the community.
November 14, 2008: After hearing the Avondale Committee present their case for road improvements at his Joint Forum held October 28th, King County Executive Ron Sims asked to meet with the Avondale Committee about their concerns. We had an extremely positive and productive meeting in Executive Sims’ office in the Columbia Tower. All the attendees of the November 12th meeting were present including Linda Dougherty, KC Roads Division Director and Harold Taniguchi, KC Transportation Director, along with King County Deputy Executive, Sheryl Whitney. After reviewing noise and safety concerns, technical options, the Pilot Program, an AR overview by Walter Scott and the budget, Executive Sims asked to see budgetary estimates for completing a longer segment of the road. The Avondale Committee stressed the desire to complete the project in one phase to save cost and delays (rather than do an initial Pilot Program). We are very appreciative of the time and efforts devoted by King County staff members in researching and evaluating the various options and to Executive Sims for providing a leadership role in finding a solution. We are currently waiting to hear from the County about cost estimates and the feasibility of doing a longer “test area”. We are very encouraged by the response of the County and their willingness to work with the community!
The County is also exploring installation of permanent speed radar signs which will flash when you are above the speed limit. Research has shown the slower you drive, the quieter and safer it is.
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Dateline Segment on Asphalt-Rubber – you need to watch to this
Not only will Asphalt-Rubber make Avondale quieter – but using Asphalt-Rubber is good for the environment and cost effective! But don’t just take our word for it – here is a NBC Dateline segment that was dedicated to how important this is and the support and opposition at the Federal level. Talk to your representatives and make sure they know how important this is for Washington State and Woodinville!
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Road Rehabilitation with Asphalt-Rubber
If you have been reading the posts on this site, you know that the North end of Avondale is paved with Portland Cement Concrete (PCC). The people supporting A Better Avondale would like to see the next paving done with Asphalt-Rubber. This is being done and has been studied in depth in other communities. For more information please read this report on the overlays in Arizona.
Rehabilitation of Portland Cement Concrete Pavements With Thin Asphalt-Rubber Open Graded Friction Course Overlays in Arizona, by Douglas D. Carlson.
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Where Rubber Meets the Road – Hear the Impact in this Video
About 1000 lane miles have been covered in Phoenix to date to reduce noise. Here is an excellent video produced by ASU’s School of Engineering and the Maricopa Association of Governments about the quiet pavement project which shows the thin paving material being placed on concrete.
Where the Rubber Meets the Road from ASU School of Engineering on Vimeo.
Click here, if Video doesn’t work http://www.fulton.asu.edu/fulton/video/
Where the Rubber Meets The Road is at the bottom of the web page
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Joint County Meeting Update 10/28/08
Avondale Road Testimony given at Executive Sims’ Joint Forum on 10/28/08 -Critical Meetings between County and Avondale Committee are Planned
On Tuesday, 10/28/2008, members of the People for A Better Avondale attended The Joint Forum for King County Unincorporated Area Councils to make a plea for the Avondale Road critical improvement project. It was a perfect opportunity to voice our concerns because the meeting was not only hosted by King County Executive Ron Sims, it was also attended by two senior-ranking members of his transportation team: Harold Taniguchi, Transportation Department Director and Linda Dougherty, Roads Services Director.
The Avondale Committee thanks our local council (the UBCC) for giving us 2 minutes of their 5-minute allotment to make a strong pitch for the Avondale Road project. It was supported by additional testimony by citizens concerned about bike safety, noise, speed, and State Representative Roger Goodman who said he has heard many concerns about Avondale Road when talking to citizens in the area.
After the meeting, we had a chance to talk with Directors Dougherty and Taniguchi about working together to find a solution for Avondale Road. Ms. Dougherty apologized for delays caused by her absences in her office and confirmed that $284,000 had been put into the 2009 budget to do a pilot program on the road. Initially, this pilot program was proposed as a “patch and repair” job on 300 feet but as we did not feel that this was money wisely spent, it was not endorsed by the Avondale Committee. We were informed that it has evolved into a test patch to study the best overlay option for Avondale. Our plan and ongoing goal is to persuade the County that asphalt rubber is feasible and the optimal surface on this particular 2.5-mile stretch of high-density road.
Two critical meetings have been requested by the County to address the Avondale problem.
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Executive Sims has asked to meet with representatives of the Avondale Committee and senior Transportation officials, Taniguchi and Dougherty, on 11/14 in Seattle. We are very excited about this opportunity to meet with top County officials about the Avondale Road problem. We will be covering the global issues of safety, noise, speed, pedestrian and bike lanes… and, of course, the budget!
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In addition, Director Dougherty is organizing a meeting with Avondale Committee representatives in November to discuss the best option for Avondale and define the Pilot Program in 2009. Director Taniguchi will attend the meeting as well along with 2 additional staff members from the Roads Division. Joining us will also be our asphalt rubber advocate, Walter Scott, and leadership of the UBCC. The meeting will begin in an area home and continue to the library conference room.
We are very excited about these developments and appreciatethe support of County leadership to help us find a solution for Avondale!
Best regards,
Joanna and Megan, People for a Better Avondale
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Have you seen the signs?
Updates from the Better Avondale Committee:
- ABetterAvondale.org signs have been posted on Avondale; more signs are available from Megan or Joanna if you want to post them in yards or neighborhoods.
- Radar board has been found to be effective and is planned on and off during the summer, permanent radar monitors are being explored.
- New members – we welcomed 2 new members at our last meeting who learned about us from our signs!
- Music in the Parks -committee members are encouraged to attend and support the Music in the Parks program sponsored by the Upper Bear Creek Council. We have a brochure to hand out to interested people at these performances. Members of the committee were on hand at the Cottage Lake concert on July 12 getting petitions signed and recruiting new members to the cause. Joanna Hamed’s 1929 yellow coupe was a great magnet for people!
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Washington DOT Report on AR is out
The Washington State Department of Transportation Report on the quiet pavement test program has been published. Here is a quick summary written by Walter Scott.
No surprises here – AR delivers – it is simply better technology !
WSDOT have reported the results of their quiet pavement program tests thus far for Lynnwood (I-5) , 2006 and SR 520 E of 84th to 102nd) , 2007 and the facts speak for themselves. On the 2 current tests, they compared “AR” ( aka OGFC-AR, rubberized asphalt), “polymer” (aka OGFC-SBS) and “HMA” ( the states conventional standard hot mixed asphalt):
Noise mitigation: (figures 18,19; summary in figure 21When compared to the polymer alternative or the WSDOT standard HMA (hot mixed asphalt), the AR averages 1-1.8 dBA dBA less across the board – at 60 mph, that’s like roughly ¼ to 1/6 of the perceived noise less
Durability: (figure17) AR – no rutting ( page one conclusions), IRI ( what is this & how big is the AR delta compared to the poly & the HMA? ) AR is proven to have better durability than the polymer or HMA.
Cost; (table 5) AR is equal in cost per lane mile as stated in the summary above table 5 because less volume is used (it’s laid thinner than HMA).
Ride (Table 7 ) & Friction (Table 6) for the new HMA, AR & Polymer were all in a close range of acceptability.
The preamble has the same disclaimer about ambient air temperatures “rarely” getting as high as the ADOT AR paving standards that I’ve seen in prior reports. I note they mentioned only the southern US states (ie Tx, Fl , Az.etc w / programs; they made no mention of Ca., NJ.. , Korea, Norway, Alberta, B.C. who also have programs; this, I think is just cut & paste filler that they are starting to see has no relevancy.
Please email us if you’d like a copy of the full report – it was too large of a file to post.
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