No sidewalks for now near new Yew Street Road school

District will bus students south of school until county can afford road improvements

JARED PABEN

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Bellingham School District plans to bus students living south of the new Wade King Elementary to school, because Whatcom County can't afford to install sidewalks along a narrow, winding stretch of Yew Street Road.

The new elementary school opens to students next week, but county officials don't foresee funding to install a sidewalk or trail on Yew Street Road from the school, near Kingsmill Street, all the way south to Samish Way.

The district is planning to have two buses arrive at the school from the south in the morning, and two leaving southbound at each afternoon release. North of the school, the road has sidewalks on both sides.

Whatcom County Public Works previously planned to widen and install sidewalks along the entire length of Yew Street Road. In 2004, the project was estimated at $2.16 million. But four years later, the county is estimating it would cost $14.1 million, and it simply doesn't have the money for that, Whatcom County Public Works Director Frank Abart said.

So officials plan to scale back the project, widening and installing one sidewalk from the school to about 1,500 feet south (around Tacoma Avenue), but that won't be finished until fall 2010, at the earliest. The remaining 3,700 feet of Yew Street Road south to Samish Way will be repaved, which it badly needs, but won't get sidewalks, Abart said. And the county may not have enough money to improve the shoulders along that southern seven-tenths of a mile, Abart said.

"That's too early to tell, but certainly if it's possible we're going to do it," he said. "It really depends on money."

Before Public Works can do anything, he said, officials have to ask for permission from the Whatcom Council of Governments and state Transportation Improvement Board to scale back the project. The council gave Whatcom County a $1.86 million grant for the project, and the board gave it $1.64 million.

Both entities have to approve continuing to provide the grants, and they'll probably make a decision in the next two months, Abart said.

If the change is approved, Public Works plans to improve the section nearest the school first, starting construction in spring 2010 and ending in fall 2010. Then, it'll repave the southern part in 2011.

Over the past three years, that stretch has had seven crashes, but none involved hitting a pedestrian, according to a crash report. Six involved a vehicle hitting a fixed object, and the seventh involved somebody falling, jumping or getting pushed from a vehicle.

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Thursday, Aug. 28, 2008

No sidewalks for now near new Yew Street Road school

District will bus students south of school until county can afford road improvements

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