Can’t something be done to ease traffic congestion at Meridian and River Road in Puyallup?
Q: Why can’t two lanes of southbound Meridian turn west (right) onto River Road in Puyallup instead of just one? Seems like it would ease congestion at that intersection. — Grant
A: Like most things in this modern age, Grant, it’s complicated.
Let us set the scene before we expound.
Meridian, also known as state Route 161, is the north-south artery bisecting Puyallup. It also connects that fair city (see what we did there?) with Edgewood to the north and Graham to the south.
River Road, also know as Route 167, connects Puyallup to Tacoma.
The two roads intersect on the north side of the city, just south of the Puyallup River. Much traffic coming off the freeway portion of Route 167, including big rigs, funnels through the intersection.
There is a single turn-only lane to accommodate drivers who wish to head west onto River Road from southbound Meridian, but Grant points out that lane often is inadequate to the task.
“During rush hour, the entire right lane of Meridian backs up,” he wrote us here at Traffic Q&A headquarters.
That can lead to problems, Grant said.
“Those in the left lane tend to find gaps or goodhearted people to merge into the right lane and turn onto River Road,” he wrote. “However, there are those that rush up to the turn lane and push in. By ‘push in’ I mean stopping traffic in their lane and then literally daring drivers to ht them as they push in front of them.”
Let us just say, “Yikes.”
Grant believes much of this unpleasantness could be solved if traffic from both lanes of southbound Meridian was permitted to turn west onto River Road.
“Can it be allowed?” he implored.
We put the question to Bryan Roberts, Puyallup’s traffic engineer, who was sympathetic.
“Yeah, that’d be great,” Roberts said. “It’s a heavy right turn there, for sure.”
We held our breath waiting for the “but.” We didn’t have to wait long.
There are no plans to grant Grant’s wish, Roberts said.
Allowing traffic from the through lane of southbound Meridian to turn right onto River Road would take more than simply erecting some signs and painting a few arrows on the pavement, he said.
The biggest challenge would be rebuilding the intersection so that the second turn lane would be wide enough to handle the tractor trailers that frequent that route, Roberts said.
“Their turning path is quite large,” he said.
That would necessitate the acquisition of property from the businesses that surround the intersection, Roberts added. That could be time-consuming and costly.
Engineers also would need to account for the pedestrian crossing there, which would be complicated by what Roberts termed “a dual right-turn pocket.”
The traffic engineer also pointed out there are higher traffic-related priorities than the Meridian-River Road intersection and a number that receive more complaints, including the intersection of Meridian and 15th Avenue Southeast near the hospital.
Roberts did offer a bit of hope.
When the state finishes the Route 167 Completion Project, he said, traffic at Meridian and River Road would be much reduced. That project would extend the freeway portion of Route 167 from its current terminus at Meridian on to Interstate 5 in Fife.
The reality: The first stage isn’t scheduled to be completed until 2026.
We won’t hold our breath for that one.
This story was originally published November 18, 2018 at 12:00 AM.
