Kent’s South 228th Street to become a major traffic connector

Drivers will see major changes in another decade or so traveling along South 228th Street between the Kent Valley and Seattle.

The $16.1 billion statewide transportation package passed this year by the Legislature includes $15 million for a railroad-vehicle grade separation along South 228th Street at the Union Pacific tracks as well as the funds to finally finish the extension of State Route 509 from SeaTac to Kent at Interstate 5.

“You won’t see the full potential of 228th until 509 is built,” said Tim LaPorte, city of Kent public works director. “When 509 is built, it’s going to be amazing. That will become the center spine (for Kent). That’s why it’s so attractive to the state grant. With 509 the question wasn’t if it would be built but when it would be done. Veteran’s Drive (228th) will connect right into 509.

“You will be able to go from Central Avenue at (South 224th) and go all the way to Safeco Field without getting on I-5. You will be on the connector and then on the 509 freeway.”

The city already built a railroad-grade separation along South 228th at the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) tracks. Crews will start work next summer on the Union Pacific separation, with the same style as the BNSF separation of the road going over the tracks or what LaPorte says will be like a double-ski jump. Kent will use a $3 million federal grant and a $3 million state Freight Mobility Strategic Investment Board grant along with the $15 million from the state transportation package to pay for the two-year project expected to be done by 2018.

Kent also built the Joe Jackson Bridge across the Green River and Veteran’s Drive up the West Hill to connect with the State Route 509 extension, a project that’s been on the planning stages for decades.

Chad Bieren, city engineer, said the state won’t complete the State Route 509 extension for about another decade because of the number of right-of-ways to purchase as well as permitting and then actual construction, which could take from three to five years.

The state will purchase Poulsbo RV, which sits right at the top of Veteran’s Drive (previously known as South 231st Way) along Military Road South, because that’s where the road will connect with the new State Route 509 connector lanes. City staff is working with the Poulsbo RV owners to find a new location in Kent, Bieren said.

Drivers will pay for the state’s transportation package with an 11.9-cent per gallon increase in the state gas tax, including a 7-cent jump on Aug. 1 and another 4.9-cent hike next July.

City Councilman Dennis Higgins sees the gas-tax increase as a good thing for Kent and the state.

“People will pay the extra gas tax and nobody will feel good about that sitting at the pump paying, but when the projects are being built and people can see the result of that extra gas tax they pay at the pump, I hope people can make that connection,” Higgins said at the council’s Public Works Committee meeting on Monday. “These are actual projects that will be built and there will be new roads and sidewalks and bike paths.”

City officials had tried to find other ways to fund the South 228th railroad grade separation, including a proposal to form a local improvement district (LID) to pay for separations along South 212th Street as well. But protests against a LID from business property owners last year caused the council to drop that plan.

Meanwhile, city officials, staff and its paid lobbyist Doug Levy worked with local state senators and representatives to help get the Legislature to include Kent projects in the transportation package.

State leaders recognized a major corridor such as South 228th Street shouldn’t have any train tracks that interrupt the flow of traffic, LaPorte said.

“We are absolutely delighted,” LaPorte said. “It will be a major way into the heartland of Kent, the manufacturing center and take you all the way to the Central Avenue and 167 location.”

LaPorte said the extension of State Route 509 also will ease traffic on Highway 167 in Kent and I-5 as drivers will have an alternate route.

“It will relieve traffic on 167 when 509 is built because 509 is basically an unused freeway,” he said. “Having that spine come into the middle of Kent is huge. We’ve only been working on it for decades, so we’re delighted.”