News Releases Article
Ridgefield, Port mull interchange
Originally published in The Reflector, 5 September, 2001. Reprinted with permission.
by Burr C. McCutcheon
According to Ridgefield city and Port officials, the future of 1-5 in Clark County is a matter of setting road priorities, and improvements to the junction at NE 269th St. in Ridgefield. should be high on the list.
That was the message for transportation officials at a meeting Aug. 29, hosted by the city and the Port of Ridgefield.
At stake is future development and traffic flow of the intersections along 1-5 north of Vancouver including 179th St. near the fairgrounds, the proposed 219th St interchange west of Battle Ground, 269th St, at Ridgefield, and 3 19th St. west of La Center.
Brent Grening, executive director of the Port, said now is the time to focus on 269th St.
“The planning, zoning and infrastructure are in place there,” Grening said. “It’s basically ready for industrial development; it needs to be a priority.”
Dean Lookingbill, director of the Regional Transportation Council (RTC), and Jeff Wilkins, a planner studying the 1-5 project for the Washington State Department of Transportation, presented their overview of the state’s plans.
None of these projects have funding set aside, Lookingbill said, and are still being evaluated by the Council, made up of
Lookingbill also noted 269th St. and the others are just four items on a long list of projects identified in the Council’s Metropolitan Transportation Plan.
Wilkens said the Department of Transportation study has proposed several improvements to the existing 269th St. interchange, including widening the off ramps, installing traffic signals, closing Timm Rd. at SR501 and adding a left turn lane onto NW 19th St.
However, Port commissioner Roy Randel said that’s not enough.
Randel believes that plans must be made now for a complete rebuilding of the interchange, one that will serve development in the area far into the future.
Randel added that a long-range vision must be developed, with a right-of-way planned to avoid another over-burdened intersection -like that at 1-205 and Mill Plain Blvd.
Grening agreed, saying that the projected 6,000 jobs to be created at the Ridgefield junction are at risk.
“We’ve really got to be careful,” Grening said. “If. we let this grow incrementally, we could destroy a lot of good development.”
Grening also said potential developers are already looking past the Ridgefield junction to Woodland, which is currently better prepared to accommodate development.
Wilkens said that the state is focusing on relieving congestion rather than local economic development. Because most of the congestion is concentrated closer to Vancouver, those projects have received funding first.
Also attending the meeting were state Sen. Joe Zarelli and Rep. Tom Mielke of the 18th District, who both favored a broader view of the area’s transportation priorities.
Zarelli said north county communities need to cooperate as a unified force to move local projects higher on the 1-5 project priority list.
He also said the construction of an interchange at 219th St. would benefit Ridgefield as well as Battle Ground.
Zarelli said he believes congestion will also be relieved by improving county roads running parallel to 1-5, such as NE 10th Ave. from 179th St. to 219th St.
Lookingbill estimated the cost of constructing an interchange at 219th St. to be $40 million.
For more information, visit the RTC website, www.rtc.wa.gov, or call 397-6067. The southwest regional office of the Department ofTransportation can be reached at905-2000.
