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

Now is your chance to hear what is going on locally and have your voice heard at the county level! We will speak up about A Better Avondale – please come provide your support!

Sims to host joint forum for King County
Unincorporated Area Councils

King County Executive Ron Sims will host a joint forum to meet with the six King County Unincorporated Area Councils (UACs). The public is encouraged to join Executive Sims, other elected officials, King County department directors, and residents and members of the UACs as they discuss various issues facing their communities.

The Upper Bear Creek Community Council is co-hosting the event.

The forum will take place:
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
6:30 p.m.-9:00 p.m.

(Social Hour: 6:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. (Displays, brochures and other information about King County services will be available))

Avondale Bible Church Hall
17010 Avondale Rd. NE
Woodinville, WA

The purpose of the annual forum is to meet with the residents in the unincorporated areas to discuss King County issues. Each of the six UACs will be invited to make presentations on the issues of greatest concern to their communities.

The six King County UACs include the Four Creeks Unincorporated Area Council, Greater Maple Valley Area Council, North Highline Unincorporated Area Council, Upper Bear Creek Community Council, Vashon-Maury Island Community Council and West Hill Community Council.

All interested persons are welcome to attend

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!  

   

   

New Jersey published a report in May of 2004 “Demonstration Project – The Measurement of Pavement Noise on New Jersey Pavements Using the NCAT Noise Trailer” (click on link to see full report)

It is clear that both the surface of the road surface matters and the speed of the traffic – we need to focus on both of these factors!

Here are some excerpts that may interest you! 

• Traffic noise is a serious problem. Engine, exhaust, aerodynamic (power train) noise, and pavement/tire noise contribute to traffic noise.  

   
  

• Research in Europe and the United States has indicated that it is possible to build pavement surfaces that will provide low noise roadways. 

• Based on the results, one can basically expect a 0.2 dB(A) increase in tire/pavement related noise for every 1 mph increase in traffic speed. 

• In general, the Portland Concrete (PCC) sections produced the loudest pavement surface while the Open-graded Friction Course (OGFC) produced the lowest pavement/tire noise.

 

 

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 84^th to 102^nd) , 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.

I had a great phone conversation with Rachel Lu, who is the PrimeFit Fitness Coordinator at Fairwinds on Avondale. She says that when their residents are trying to walk in the sidewalk, they can really feel it — they are buffeted by winds from speeding vehicles that make them feel like “like they’re about to be run over.” We agreed that if motorists actually drove at the posted speed of 40 mph it would make a big difference. 

Here is an email and photo she sent me:

In addition to my comments about a “Better Avondale Road” on June 02, I would like to share additional community info on this subject.  I hope it will help to support our needs to improve Avondale Road for a good cause.  Our walkers in the Fairwinds-Redmond are from age 62 to 96, and they spend at least one hour a day walking for their good health.  The majority of our residents are very outgoing, active, and support the fitness programs that I have.  I have attached a photo, which shows the varying of age groups in our community.  It was for the “2-Mile October Breast Cancer Walk”, which was from Fairwinds-Redmond to PCC Market.  We had a great time, but the road conditions were not very pleasant at all.  If we can improve the conditions, I believe we will have more participation for this awareness program next time.

Title: Next General Meeting – 6/23
Location: Woodinville Library
Description: Please come to the next General Meeting on 6/23 for an update on all the activity that has been taking place.
Start Time: 19-00-00
Date: 2008-06-23
End Time: 21-00-00

We need  a couple of volunteers to step up and help out with the radar boards for the week of June 9th.  The trailers are armed with an alarm system to help deter with any tampering or theft of the boards.  Because of this, the trailers need to be placed along Avondale close enough to someone’s home where they can hear the alarm going off and be able to attend to it.

I was hoping that we could put one of the boards around NE 137 – NE 143rd, and the other board somewhere between NE 153 – 155.  Does anyone live close enough to these locations to be able to hear an alarm going off and attend to it? Please let me know if you can help out with this.  It’s not difficult, just someone to keep a watchful eye and ear and attend to any problems if there are any.
 
Thanks for your consideration in this matter.
 
Rebecca Lavering

Traffic noise is a serious problem

Engine, exhaust, aerodynamic (power train) noise,and pavement/tire noise contribute to traffic noise. The FHWA Noise Abatement Criteria states that noise abatement must be considered for residential areas when the traffic noise levels approach or exceed 67 dB (A). To accomplish this many areas in the United States are building large sound barrier walls at a cost of one to five million dollars per roadway mile. Research in Europe and the United States has indicated that it is possible to build pavement surfaces that will provide low noise roadways. In January of 2002 the National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) initiated a research study with the objective to develop safe, quiet and durable asphalt pavement surfaces.

The first step towards accomplishing this objective was to develop a fast and scientifically reliable method for measuring the acoustical characteristics of pavement surfaces. The next step is to conduct studies to evaluate the tire/pavement noise characteristics of various pavement surfaces and to evaluate what properties of those pavements will provide quiet pavement surfaces.

This is a quote from the paper, “Demonstration Project – The Measurement of Pavement Noise on New Jersey Pavements Using the NCAT Noise Trailer.”

By

Mr. Thomas Bennert, Senior Research Engineer

Mr. Doug Hanson, Assistant Director

Dr. Ali Maher, Professor & Chairman

Dep. of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Center for Advanced Infrastructure & Transportation (CAIT)

Rutgers, The State University

Piscataway, NJ 08854-8014

Come voice your opinion!
45th District Includes: Woodinville, Duvall, Carnation, Kirkland, & Redmond

State Representatives, Larry Springer  and Roger Goodman and Senator Eric Oemig, are holding a Town Hall meeting on May 17th at 1:00pm at the Woodinville Library (17105 Avondale Rd. NE).  They will be reviewing what happened in the 2008 session and would like our feedback.  Please attend and let them know that Transportation isn’t just about the 520 bridge – we also need to improve the maintenance program for roads like Avondale.

In Representative Springer’s recent newsletter he reviewed the following 2008 legislative issues: (1) Protections for consumers, homeowners; (2) Housing security for families; (3) Education Funding; and (4) Transportaiton.

Representative Springer is on the following committees:
Housing, Vice Chair
Rules
Appropriations Subcommittee on Education
Transportation

In Representative Goodman’s recent newsletter he reviewed (1) Saving Lives – holding drunk drivers accountable, (2) Emergency Planning & Response, (3) Improving access to the courts, (4) Early Childhood Education, and (5) Pioneering 4-year program for Lake WA Technical College.

Representative Goodman is on the following committees:
Judiciary, Vice Chair
Early Learning & Children’s Services
Public Safety & Emergency Preparedness
Statute Law

Senator Oemig is on the following committees:
Government Operations & Elections (Vice Chair)
Early Learning and K-12 Education
Water, Energy & Telecommunications
Ways & Means