Bellingham to remove traffic islands along West Bakerview Road

JARED PABEN - THE BELLINGHAM HERALD

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BELLINGHAM - City crews will remove traffic islands along West Bakerview Road this week, an effort to decrease congestion and improve safety along the heavily traveled corridor.

Bellingham Public Works crews will work Wednesday through Friday, Nov. 4-6, to remove median planters along Bakerview between Palisade Way and Northwest Avenue and between Northwest and Pacific Highway, near Fred Meyer.

The islands at those locations clog traffic because they limit the number of left-turning vehicles queuing in the center turn lane, city officials said.

"I remember coming to the conclusion that removing the islands was a no-brainer after performing several site visits during (evening rush hour) and witnessing several close calls as traffic consistently stacked into the through lane," said Steve Haugen, traffic operations engineer at Public Works.

Removing the islands lets more vehicles wait to turn left onto Northwest Avenue and into the Fred Meyer driveway, he said.

The islands were installed to improve the road's aesthetics when that stretch of Bakerview was widened and improved in 1998. The work was done with the expectation that some islands may have to be modified or removed as traffic increased in the future, Rory Routhe, assistant director of engineering, previously said. Some islands have been modified.

"We expect more will be modified in the future as needed for safety and capacity requirements," he said.

More than 27,000 vehicles a day use Bakerview east of Northwest, and more than 16,000 a day use it between the freeway and Northwest, according to Public Works data.

The work, which will take place between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., will require some lane closures. Flaggers will be directing traffic. Work dates and times may change, depending on weather or last-minute changes in work schedules, according to Public Works.