Care about I-5 noise in lower Wallingford? Then it is important you attend this meeting on Wednesday night to show WSDOT you care:
7 PM to 8:15 PM at John Stanford International School (Latona) 241, 4057 5th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105. Room 320 (first classroom to the left of the main entrance)
Sharad reports for the community:
Concerned Wallingford residents have been trying to get WSDOT to do noise mitigation for the stretch of Wallingford that runs along I-5 where there is no sound mitigation (5th ave, from 45th street down). We’ve been working with WSDOT and the WA State legislature for over 2 years. WSDOT has finished a noise study and will be present at this community meeting. Affected residents are encouraged to attend.
There is no website yet for the study. My understanding is that if not enough people show up / there is no community interest, then this will be shelved.
A prior study that resulted in no action is reported here. It describes the problems well- reflected noise, seismic issues, it’s all a big mess to fix.
Fun Fact: The ship canal bridge is the same type as the Minnesota bridge that failed 7 years back. That means that if any one of those mechanical struts fails then the whole thing collapses. WSDOT calls the bridge safe, but they are understandably nervous about messing with it:
And the official invite from the WA legislature arrived in my inbox a few minutes ago. It says:
Thank you for contacting us regarding the noise pollution near John Stanford International School. At our request, the Washington State Department of Transportation completed a study to assess the noise levels at the school and in the surrounding neighborhood. They have finished their study and put together information about the cost and effect of building a noise wall. We are hosting an informational meeting with WSDOT to share their findings with you and to hear your feedback. Here is the information for the meeting:
Date: Wednesday, December 16th
Start Time: 7:00 PM
End Time: 8:15 PM
Location: John Stanford International School (Latona) 241, 4057 5th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105
Room: 320 (first classroom to the left of the main entrance)
You are welcome to share this information with your neighbors. Please let Eleanor Comyns know if you can attend or if you have any questions by emailing her at [email protected].
There is a cheaper solution: modify the use of the express lanes. Close them after morning rush hour (roughly when school starts, this year at least) and open them for evening rush hour (roughly when school gets out). As a neighbor and former parent of a JSIS student, I have often wondered why the extra lanes had to be open when there was no real need. Especially as traffic is at its loudest not when they are full and slow but when the lanes are mostly empty and vehicles moving fast.
We could do this at night too, between the evening and morning rush hours and neighbors would sleep better.
Michael, based on observations from various busses, the express lanes fill up from 9-10 with long queues while the southbound lanes are still at capacity. They aren’t going to close earlier.
Can’t we just repave it with that low noise asphalt they used on 520? That stuff is amazing.
One of the biggest issues on I-5 is the road surface is really noisy thanks to people driving on it with spiked tires and pitting it like crazy.
Also if you’re skating to JSIS, please watch out for pebbles. I tore my rotator cuff after hitting a rock there on my board. Took a year to get full motion back.
Skaters, in my opinion are a greater menace than falling bridges or road noise. Especially the mature ones. A jolly rotund security guard, fleet of foot and straight of edge, would put paid to their truck-ulent shenanigans. Or a swarm of bees.
I somewhat agree with Chris on the low noise asphalt. However, the test data is short lived and the maintenance repair costs on it are really high. Something like a true soundwall barrier would last a lot longer would it not? Around 100+ years? Plus the maintenance is low but it cant be just the grey wall like everywhere else on I-5…
If they can’t do a sound wall, the asphalt will help a lot. I’d rather have a half-solution than no solution.