For a long time, drivers coming from Redmond Ridge and further east on their way to State Route 520 on Avondale Road Northeast would usually choose either Northeast Novelty Hill Road or Northeast Union Hill Road to get to the freeway.

If they got stuck in traffic, they were just that: stuck. There was no alternative route for them to take.

But with the recent opening of a new north-south connection, drivers can now travel between northeast Novelty Hill road and Union Hill roads.

The two thoroughfares are now connected at their 195th/196th avenues northeast intersections (196th Avenue Northeast at Northeast Union Hill Road turns into 195th Avenue Northeast at Northeast Novelty Hill Road).

“(Drivers) can basically use either road,” said Christopher Wierzbicki, deputy director of Road Services for King County.

A MULTI-FACETED PROJECT

The $17.6 million Northeast Novelty Hill Road project took a little more than two years to complete, he said. Funding came from a variety of sources including a county bond and the Washington State Department of Ecology. Although the project is located in unincorporated King County outside of Redmond, Wierzbicki said the City of Redmond also dedicated some money toward it.

The project, which was built by Scarsella Brothers, Inc., was made up of a number of components. Two-lane roundabouts were built at the intersections of Northeast Union Hill Road and 196th Avenue Northeast and Northeast Novelty Hill Road and 195th Avenue Northeast. Northeast Union Hill Road was widened to include a new four-lane section, with turn lanes in areas. Construction crews also widened 196th Avenue Northeast, adding a turn lane and 8-foot-wide shoulders. They also built the connection at 195th Avenue Northeast to Northeast Novelty Hill Road as a two- and three-lane road with full shoulders for pedestrians and bicyclists.

“That’s a new segment of road,” Wierzbicki said about the latter.

In addition, Evans Creek Bridge was widened and raised to better accommodate pedestrians, equestrians and bicyclists using the Bear and Evans Creek Trail and greenway.

“Everything is finished,” Wierzbicki said. “Construction took 28 months. It was five months ahead of schedule.”

He added that the only part that is not complete yet is the installation of electronic signage for westbound drivers on northeast Novelty Hill or Union Hill roads, which will inform them of the upcoming traffic situations and suggest whether drivers should continue on the road they’re traveling on or to take the alternative.

EASING TRAFFIC

Wierzbicki said the main reason for the project was to ease congestion on northeast Novelty Hill and Union Hill roads.

Woodinville resident Jeffrey Bradford uses the roads to get to and from work at Microsoft Corp. in Redmond on a daily basis and said it has definitely helped his commute to work in the mornings. He said utilizing the new connection — he wouldn’t say in which direction because he doesn’t want more people to use it, as well — has shaved 10 minutes off his drive to work. It now takes him about 15 minutes to get to work whereas it used to take close to a half hour. Bradford said taking the alternate route on the way home, however, hasn’t made much of a difference.

Millie Snook, a Redmond resident who served on the Community Advisory Group for the project since 2002, said in a letter to the Reporter, it incorporated best practices for road design and maximizes safety improvements.

“I feel privileged to have played a small role in the project,” she wrote.

SAFETY CONCERNS

Although Bradford likes the new connection and has “nothing against roundabouts,” he said he doesn’t think two lanes are needed — especially as the east-west roads approaching the roundabouts are only one lane in each direction.

“It just seems to add unnecessary merges,” he said.

Brandy Badger, who lives in unincorporated King County on Union Hill just a few blocks from that roundabout, also has some concerns about the newly completed project.

She said she is worried about when winter comes and the roads get icy — particularly the hills leading up to the roundabouts.

“I drive those roads in the winter and that’s just going to be a mess,” predicted Badger, who drives from Union Hill to downtown Redmond for work.

She said she has already seen a few almost accidents as drivers speed down the hill, adding that she would rather there be traffic signals at these intersections instead of roundabouts.

Wierzbicki said they chose to install roundabouts because they are the safest form of intersection control. He said because vehicles are all traveling in the same direction, the number of “points of conflicts” are reduced. Wierzbicki said with a traffic signal, vehicles are entering the intersection from all directions and traveling in all directions, which increases the potential for accidents. He added that when roads are icy, traveling at 15 mph — the designated speed limit at the roundabouts — is not much of a challenge and it is actually safer to keep moving than stopping as cars would be forced to do at a traffic signal.

Reporter readers, who commented on a previous report about the project’s completion, also voiced concerns about the designated speed limits for the intersection, saying there needs to be a slowdown speed between going down the hills at 45 mph to 15 mph at the roundabouts.

Wierzbicki said 15-20 mph is the typical speed for roundabouts of this size, pointing out that there is rarely a transition zone on roads approaching a traffic signal. The only warning drivers would get is the yellow light.