Budget supports project to ease traffic at Bell Road

A project addressing traffic congestion at Bell Road has gained new momentum, after state legislators appropriated $1 million for grade separation.

Grade separation is defined as putting two or more transportation routes at different heights, or grades, so that they will not disrupt each other’s traffic flow.

The grade separation project at Bell Road would create an overpass over the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) mainline where the federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Vehicle and Cargo Inspection System (VACIS) is located, just south of city limits.

In 2002, DHS placed VACIS on the BNSF mainline, creating traffic backups in all directions for up to 45 minutes for every train inspected. This results in a significant congestion problem for travel along north and southbound SR 548 (at Bell Road) and the I-5’s northbound off-ramp. It also delays emergency response to the entire west side of Blaine.

To alleviate this issue, the city has proposed utilizing a grade separation design from the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). This solution would create an overpass over the BNSF mainline where VACIS is located, tying in on Blaine Road (SR548) before the Dakota Creek Bridge and on Portal Way south of the I-5 northbound on-ramp.

This would allow drivers heading to and from Semiahmoo, for example, to pass over the train tracks rather than having to wait for trains to pass by. The trains proceed at such a low rate of speed because they are being scanned by VACIS. “VACIS has impacted our city more than any other piece of infrastructure in our community,” said Ravyn Whitewolf, Blaine’s public works director. “It could block several intersections in the city, Bell Road being one of them. That’s the primary road between Semiahmoo and the rest of Blaine.”

For years, the city has been trying to lobby the federal government to move VACIS. “We were told that there’s just no way that facility is going to move,” said Whitewolf.

During the previous legislative session, $550,000 was appropriated towards the project, which was the first time the city was successful in obtaining state funding for it. The previous year, governor Jay Inslee vetoed multiple items from a transportation funding bill, including a provision that would have allocated $12,100,000 for the first phase of the project.

The project, as it was envisioned at the time of Inslee’s veto, would have created a new southbound off-ramp at exit 274 onto Peace Portal Drive. Currently, exit 276 is the first southbound exit from the border and is six miles away from the next available off-ramp. The goal of the new off-ramp would have been to improve access to the city of Blaine, contributing to the city’s economic development.

But following Inslee’s veto, the project has been scaled back to focus on traffic congestion only, rather than improving access to Blaine. The proposed new southbound off-ramp at exit 274 is no longer feasible, based on input from WSDOT and federal officials.

In vetoing the $12 million allocation in 2017, governor Inslee cited the need for the city of Blaine to go through a “practical design workshop” with WSDOT and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to tighten details of the project. Subsequently, city officials participated in a workshop with WSDOT.

The preferred outcome of the workshop was a plan to focus on a “partial interchange” solution, which would cost less than creating a “full interchange” with two sets of on-ramps and off-ramps, both southbound and northbound. However, after discussions with city officials, FHWA said they cannot approve any solution that includes only a partial interchange. This required the city to re-examine their priorities. After further conversations with WSDOT, the city determined that the grade-separation concept could proceed without jeopardizing the future interchange design.

While this was disappointing to the city of Blaine, officials are moving ahead with the grade separation concept, which is expected to cost more than $20 million when all is said and done. “Our hope is to get at least half of it from the state and then go to the federal side and get the remaining money from federal dollars,” said Whitewolf, the public works director. “We feel as a city that the federal government has some responsibility to assist with this solution because they caused the problem [with VACIS].”

“We’re not going to do the interchange part of the project in the foreseeable future, but are putting our focus on grade separation,” said Whitewolf.

The $1 million appropriation will help fund initial design and engineering costs. “My hope is to get enough of the design done that we can purchase the right of way that’s needed,” said Whitewolf. “The last thing we want to do is to have to impact newly developed properties with this overpass.”