Roundabout is top choice for Lake-Sierra intersection

When it comes to improving safety and easing traffic jams at the Northwest Lake Road and Northwest Sierra Street intersection in Camas, the majority of community members, stakeholders and Camas officials who have weighed in on the project say they prefer a roundabout over a traffic signal.

The intersection has not yet been the site of a major traffic crash, but some Camas officials warned this week that it’s just a matter of time.

“Most of us know we’re headed for a crash here,” Camas City Councilman John Nohr said Monday, during the Council’s workshop, of the three-way intersection at Northwest Lake Road and Northwest Sierra Street near Camas’ Lake Heights and Lake Pointe neighborhoods. “I’m surprised it hasn’t happened yet.”

The intersection has been on City leaders’ radar since 2019, when public comment and testimony about the intersection’s wait times and safety concerns prompted Camas City Council members to approve its addition to the Six Year Transportation Improvement Program. In June, the project moved to the program’s No. 3 priority spot.

“The intersection currently does not meet the City’s level of service standards,” Camas Engineering Manager James Carothers told Council members Monday.

Consultants have said nearly 16,000 vehicles enter the intersection each day, and that drivers coming from Sierra Street onto Lake Road — one of the major arterial roads leading into and out of Camas — have limited visibility of traffic driving northwest on Lake Road and that drivers turning left from Sierra onto Lake wait an average of 40 seconds during peak morning and evening commute hours. By 2045, that wait time is expected to increase to more than 100 seconds. Both wait times fail the City’s acceptable level of service for what is known as a “collector” street.

City consultant Jason Irving, senior project manager at MacKay Sposito, told Council members this week that consultants analyzing the intersection looked at two main needs: safety and traffic delays.

“There is limited sight distance … for (drivers) trying to turn from Sierra Street onto Lake Road,” Irving said. “And (vehicles) waiting to turn left onto Sierra Street from Lake Road can stack up and impact traffic on Lake Road.”

Other safety concerns include the lack of a dedicated right turn lane onto Sierra and an eastbound bicycle lane that ends before the intersection.

The second concern is traffic delays, which — at least on Sierra Street — do not meet the City’s standards, Irving said.

As traffic increases, especially on Lake Road, Carothers added, the space in between vehicles decreases and drivers are more likely to make dangerous turns.

“As the gaps get smaller, risk goes up,” he said.

To fix the intersection, City staff suggested earlier this year that Camas officials approve building either a mini-roundabout or a traffic signal, but City officials asked for more information on the two options; more public feedback; and research into other options, including a three-way stop and the “do nothing” option Councilwoman Jennifer Senescu has brought up.

On Monday, consultants with JLA Public Involvement, Inc. described the public outreach efforts they’ve conducted since April to gauge the community’s thoughts on the Sierra-Lake intersection improvements.

The public outreach included a citywide mailer sent to 13,000 households; letters sent to property owners living adjacent to the intersection; meetings with six property owners who live next to the intersection; interviews with three stakeholder groups, including the Camas-Washougal Fire Department, Lake Pointe and Lake Heights homeowners associations and a bicycling group that organizes an annual ride that goes past the Sierra-Lake intersection en route to Camas’ Heritage Park on Lacamas Lake.

The consultants also worked with Camas Communications Director Bryan Rachal to post several social media updates on the City’s social media sites; conducted online surveys; held an open house at Lacamas Lake Lodge that had about 60 in-person attendees; and pushed information out on the City’s Engage Camas website, which garnered nearly 700 site visits and 141 sign-ups for more information.

“Overall, safety was the top concern,” JLA’s public engagement manager, Adrienne Dedona, told Council members Monday, adding that the roundabout option “seemed to be the preferred option for folks over the traffic signal.”

Dedona said stakeholder groups, including the local fire department, all preferred the roundabout over the traffic signal and that an online survey held May 22 through June 10 showed 61% of respondents wanted to see a roundabout over other options. The survey had 20 written comments, 9% of which preferred doing nothing to improve the intersection, Dedona said.

“Some did not want any improvements,” she told Council members. “And, of those comments, eight were concerned with the cost or supported no action. At least three supported the roundabout and there were a few other ideas expressed (including) a three-way stop, radar-reader board and no action.”

Carothers and Irving said Monday that an analysis of the intersection shows a roundabout would serve the City longer than a traffic signal.

“The roundabout stays well below the (City’s level of service threshold) for 20 years and beyond,” Carothers said, while a traffic signal would fail to meet City standards within 20 years, likely by 2039.

Answering questions about the impacts of not improving the intersection or opting for a lower-cost option such as a three-way stop sign or prohibiting left turns at the intersection, Carothers explained that these options would not improve the Sierra-Lake intersection to the City’s current standards.

“The problem with the three-way stop is that it will cause significant delays on Lake Road,” he said, adding that it also could encourage people to run the stop signs during non-peak hours.

Preventing left-hand turns at Sierra-Lake would likely divert traffic through nearby neighborhoods instead of keeping it on Sierra Street, which was designed to be a “collector” that puts traffic onto the main “arterial” Lake Road.

“The right-in, right-out option … would raise traffic in other spots,” Carothers said. “Sierra has no driveways on it and is meant to channel traffic through it. (Preventing left turns at Sierra-Lake) is not recommended by staff.”

The cost of constructing a roundabout is expected to be $3.1 million versus the $1.7 million construction cost of a traffic signal, but Carothers warned that City leaders likely would need to replace the traffic signal with a roundabout in 15 to 20 years, when traffic demands will again cause the intersection to fall below City standards if it is controlled by a traffic signal.

The roundabout option will have some private property impacts, consultants told Council members, including the possibility of removing three to five trees near the intersection.

“We would need to talk to an arborist, and the goal would be to reduce those impacts,” Irving added.

The City also will likely need to implement some property acquisitions and/or temporary construction easements, Irving said, impacting between five to eight properties located at the intersection, and acquiring between 40 and 500 square feet of property — likely on the roadway side of existing private property fences, Irving said.

The roundabout would provide several safety benefits, Irving said, including slowing traffic and providing safer options for bicyclists, including a ramp for cyclists to “access a wide shared-use path and cross Sierra Street in a marked crosswalk.”

Though some neighbors were concerned about noise at the intersection, Carothers and Irving said noise consultants told them that, under federal highway criteria, the project would “very likely (not) qualify for sound walls.” Building a sound wall also would likely lead to more property acquisitions and would cost an additional $400,000 to $700,000. However, Carothers said, improving the intersection to slow traffic would “significantly reduce traffic noise.”

On Monday, Senescu questioned the project, suggesting the intersection would benefit residents in nearby neighborhoods while “all citizens of Camas are going to pay for it, not just the citizens it impacts.”

But Nohr and other Council members pointed out that the intersection does impact the entire City.

“There are only two primary routes in and out of town,” Nohr said, referring to Lake Road and Sixth Avenue. “Everybody uses them. You choose one route or another, for the most part.”

Councilman Tim Hein agreed, saying: “We have very few … major arterials in town. They are all important and, when you affect one, ultimately you will affect them all, even down to the neighborhood level. We need to step back, look at our priorities and look at this comprehensively (to find the) best, safest solution over time and plan for the future.”

Councilwoman Bonnie Carter said she and Councilman Hein “have really pushed to have this put to the citizens.”

“We live in this area of the city and there are only a few main roads that hit people off of Prune Hill,” Carter said. “(This intersection) fails fairly often. At least five hours out of the day it is failing. … We are funded to go forward with design options, so our next step is to look at funding options in a future budget.”

Hein added that he believes the intersection needs improvement.

“I go down there consistently, driving and biking,” Hein said. “I’m shocked we have not had a major incident at this intersection yet. It’s time to put plans in place to look at a long-term solution for this intersection. Not to put in a light and look at it again 15 years later.”

During the July 15 workshop, four Council members — Carter, Hein, Nohr and Svilarich — nodded approval for staff to bring an amendment back to the Council that would move forward with designing a roundabout.

Camas Public Works Director Steve Wall said the City has money in its 2023-24 budget to design the intersection improvement, but would need to come back to the Council with funding options for the actual construction.

“It is very common for the City to use loans to do these types of projects and pay them back over 20 years,” Wall said. “That is mostly due to the life of the project. With the roundabout, it will last beyond that 20-year period. It’s similar to any water, or sewer or transportation project. We’ve Identified a failure. We have to figure out how to fix it. And then we come back with funding (options).”

Carothers said he will bring an amendment to move forward with the roundabout design back to the Council for councilmembers’ consideration during their next meeting, set for Monday. Aug. 5.