Can I get a car wash with that new lake?

A new lake recently popped up on Mullen Road about 500 feet east of Afflerbaugh Road, under the train bridge.

Thurston County crews placed signs. One sign placed 1,000 feet from the lake stated that water was over the roadway; it gave a speed limit of 10 mph.

Then about 500 feet from the lake they placed a yellow sign stating 20 mph. This confused the motorist who then decided to add the two numbers and plow through the water at 30+mph.

The county later replaced the conflicting signs with one sign that states 10 mph. But because it's on a huge black LED sign and not a tiny white one, citizens have deemed it merely a suggestion and ignore it.

For those of us in economy-sized cars, it is a big deal. Some kindly citizens wait and allow us to move to the wrong side of the road to get out of the deepest part of the water, but there are jerks that plow through the water with no regard for other cars or pedestrians.

I dubbed this bridge “The Mullen Can Opener.” It takes more hits than a baseball, and we have concern the integrity of the bridge is more compromised than our personal information at the IRS headquarters.

Please fix the situation, figure out a drainage system or maybe build up the road so that we have to drive over the train tracks instead of under them. At the very least offer free car washes.

This story was originally published March 15, 2016 at 2:55 PM with the headline "Can I get a car wash with that new lake?."