The new flashing crosswalk signs at one of the pedestrian crossings along W. Main Street between New Hope Fellowship and Monroe Christian.
Photo courtesy City of Monroe
The state Transportation Improvement Board (TIB) recently gave the city of Monroe grants for two road projects. Also, Snohomish received TIB grants for projects.
Monroe plans to install Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons (RRFB) at more locations, including Main Street at Sams Street, Lewis Street at Fremont Street and Blueberry Lane at King Street (the intersection at Blueberry Children’s Park).
Also, a traffic signal project at 147th Street was approved at the Monroe city council meeting on Dec. 10. It places a signal at the intersection of 179th Avenue SE and 147th Street SE close to EvergreenHealth hospital and the Monroe School District headquarters. It is anticipated to begin construction this year.
RRFBs are two, rectangular-shaped yellow indicators with LED lights.
The beacons cause drivers to yield to pedestrians 98% of the time, reducing 47% of pedestrian-related accidents, the TIB said.
The total funding was $70,090 for Monroe’s future beacons.
Three RRFBs will be at the crossing of Main and Sams streets that has a “median on a four-lane road section,” reported TIB’s performance dashboard.
For the second project, they were rewarded $269,000. That project is adding more sidewalk on Main Street between Fryelands Boulevard and the first roundabout where there is a gap.
According to TIB’s performance management dashboard, that location has no crosswalk “between the northwest corner of the intersection and the south side of Main Street.”
They want to construct a 380-foot sidewalk and make changes to the draining system. That includes “two catchbasins and a retaining wall,” TIB’s performance management dashboard states.
In 2024, Monroe added six rapid flashing beacons: At the crosswalk by the YMCA on Fryelands Boulevard, along Main Street, and one at the west end of the Tester Road roundabout.
Snohomish was granted money for road projects, too. The city was awarded $963,135 for adding Rapid Flashing Beacons at multiple locations and for the North Bickford Avenue Overlay.
The funding would fix safety issues and accessibility to city amenities. In 2025 and 2026, Snohomish will place high-visibility flashing beacons at five intersections alerting drivers of pedestrians: at 13th Street and Park Avenue, Second Street and Avenue C, Fourth and Avenue D, Pine Avenue and 6th Street, and Avenue A where it meets the Interurban Trail.
Placing flashing beacons will inform drivers at intersections of pedestrians crossing the street according to TIB’s performance chart.
Snohomish’s volunteer Public Safety Board is working on “a pedestrian campaign” the Tribune previously reported. They would be asking drivers to drive safer. They are aiming for early February though details are being worked out.
Between Snohomish and Monroe, nine projects have been funded by TIB.
According to the TIB website, the board offered “179 and multi-modal improvement grants to local agencies totaling $145 million.”
TIB’s Deputy Director Chris Workman said via email that “Everett and Lake Stevens did not receive a new award in this latest round” that happened in late November.
Lake Stevens was awarded with “a Complete Streets grant for $442,564 to go toward their 91st Avenue SE Sidewalk project in May,” Workman said.
