New lighting, pavement planned for dangerous stretch of Bellingham roadway
New pavement and street lighting are planned for a half-mile section of Samish Way where two people have been hit by cars and killed while crossing the street at night in the past five years.
Bellingham was awarded a federal grant of $2.3 million for the project, and City Council members unanimously accepted the funding on Monday. The grant is administered through the Washington State Department of Transportation.
Mike Wilson, assistant director of engineering for the Public Works Department, told a City Council committee on Monday that the project involves the stretch of Samish Way and Maple Street from Ellis Street to Bill McDonald Parkway.
“The existing pavement on Samish Way and Maple Street is in poor condition. In addition, street lighting along the corridor has not been updated in many years and needs to be improved to be more consistent with the developing urban village along the corridor. The project scope addresses both of these issues by resurfacing the roadway to improve pavement conditions and improving corridor lighting by relocating existing streetlights and installing additional fixtures to enhance visibility and safety for all users,” Wilson said in a memo about the project.
New pavement and lighting are expected to be installed by 2027, after a project to replace water and sewer lines in the same part of the street, Wilson told the council. That underground work is expected later this year and will address the “geometry” of the intersection where Ellis Street angles into Maple Street and Maple angles again to become Samish Way, Wilson said.
Councilmember Lisa Anderson, who lives nearby, said that the Maple Street zig-zag is particularly dangerous.
“(It) is a very hazardous corner, where vehicles that are heading south more than once have ended up in the house at the corner,” Anderson said.
There have been 20 crashes on the two-block section of Maple Street between Ellis and Samish in the past 10 years, according to WSDOT data.
Nearly 12,000 cars and trucks use Samish Way daily, according to a city of Bellingham traffic count in 2023.
WSDOT data shows that the Samish Way urban village has a history of injuries to bicycle riders and people on foot over the past 10 years between Maple Street and Bill McDonald Parkway.
Between 2016 and 2025, 10 bicyclists and pedestrians were hit by cars along that part of the road.
Two people were killed crossing Samish Way at night near Bill McDonald Parkway in 2023, one in February and one in October.
This story was originally published March 3, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
