Issaquah's latest traffic study is set for release sometime within the next few weeks. Preliminary results imply that growth between the years 2000 and 2015 will be so extensive as to consume most the new development opportunity within the submarket within that timeframe.
Looking forward for solutions and alternatives, the city's new report preliminarily predicts the construction of State Route 18 to a four-lane configuration between Hobart Road and Interstate 90—without a new bypass—would reduce traffic within the city by up to 10%. With a bypass, it estimates that the significant congestion on the main thoroughfares of Newport and Front Streets could fall by as much as 51%.
The plateau just north of Interstate-90 is a densely-populated area served by the traffic-clogged downtown Issaquah. Stretching northward from the city, the plateau includes a portion of Issaquah, the young city of Sammamish, and two major developments in unincorporated King County (Klahanie and the Issaquah Highlands). While development in the 800-acre Klahanie is completed, the Issaquah Highlands is just beginning to pick up steam.
Looking to mass transit help ease the strain, both Sammamish and the Issaquah Highlands find themselves vying for the same public dollars. Paul Matsuoka, policy and planning officer for Sound Transit, the regional transit authority in Snohomish, King and Pierce counties, confirms $6 million has been set aside for new park-and-ride in the area—a facility both communities would like to call their own.
The young city of Sammamish is hoping Sound Transit will build the park-and-ride at the Pine Lake Shopping center—a site that would service both Sammamish and Klahanie. The Issaquah Highlands, on the other hand, would like to double the size of the 500-space lot now being built in its development by King County-Metro.
Just where the new park-and-ride will land, however, is still a question under consideration. Matsouka says a study now underway will make that determination sometime later in the year.
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