Traffic could tie up campus project

Neighborhood challenges state over development near freeway

By Adam Wilson | The Olympian • Published May 19, 2008

OLYMPIA – South Capitol Neighborhood residents are appealing the plan for $260 million in new offices at the eastern edge of the Capitol Campus.

They say the state's numbers on local traffic don't add up for the new development near Interstate 5 ramps.

Neighborhood association president Greg Klein said neighbors don't want to kill the project, but they think the state should do more to try to prevent traffic backups.

A traffic analysis says the project would add up to 317 more cars in one hour to the intersection of 14th Avenue and Jefferson Street. The state plans to install a two-lane roundabout there to ease traffic flow.

Neighbor Mark Jobson said the state's report defies common sense. He noted the site — new headquarters for the Department of Information Services and the Washington State Patrol — includes a 950-car garage.

"I think you're going to have 700 or 800 cars arrive in that time," Jobson said. "That intersection can't handle that mount of traffic. And I'm not sure a roundabout will, either."

Each weekday morning, state workers file into the 2,400-stall Plaza Garage on the west side of the intersection and the 1,000-stall garage near the Department of Natural Resources a block north.

That is the peak of traffic in the area, with about 3,100 cars passing through the intersection between 7 and 9 a.m., according to the state analysis, done by Parametrix, a Lacey company.

The estimate of 317 extra cars comes from national guidelines, said Justin Jones, consulting civil engineer at Parametrix.

The Institute of Transportation Engineers manual provides estimates of traffic generated by the size of buildings of a certain type, such as an office, and those figures have been adjusted by Olympia planners to fit local trends.

Those calculations are more accurate than looking at the size of the new parking garage, Jones said.

"It's not always a direct correlation," he said. "It's saying not everybody's coming to work the same time. There's going to be people who are sick, or on vacation, or whatever."