So, remember that new traffic light the city was hoping to build at the intersection of Sequoia and Hazel Dell by the end of the year? You know, the end of the year that’s happening in about five months or so?
Well, yeah. It’s not happening by the end of the year. The location is better known as the “Fred Meyer intersection” since it’s also the primary way into and out of the Fred Meyer complex, and it was for this reason that City Administrator Rick Robinson was very hopeful and optimistic that the signal could be installed in time to assist with the holiday shopping traffic.
He was a little too optimistic, as he now admits, and the project completion date has been pushed back.
“I was overly optimistic in my timeline when pushing this initiative forward,” Robinson said in an email last week. “The project is progressing and should be out to bid in 30 to 60 days. I am hopeful it will be complete in the late spring to early summer, 2020.”
That, of course, would be a bit late for the holiday shopping rush, but it would coincide nicely with another major factor in the need for the new signal: Columbia Distributing’s new 531,000 square foot beverage warehouse and distribution facility, located just north of Hazel Dell Way, is also projected to come online next summer.
Although it’s not known exactly how many will use that intersection, Columbia’s operations will add hundreds of new daily car and truck trips to the roads in that area. The company has agreed to pay 5 percent of the cost of the new signal. The rest is being financed through city urban renewal funds.
