Chehalis to Rework National Avenue at Chamber Way Underpass

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Chehalis is ready to get to work on the troublesome area of National Avenue beneath Chamber Way, conducting slide repair and removing the right lane of the underpass.

The road currently splits two southbound lanes around a support below Chamber Way, a spot that has experienced persistent slide problems with unstable asphalt fill on the hillside. A project to fix the slide problem with the current configuration was “becoming very expensive,” according to a report presented to the Chehalis city council, and Community Development Director Trent Lougheed began looking at whether traffic warranted the second lane.

“It’s been of concern, and they’ve noticed that it’s been slipping for a number of years,” said city manager Jill Anderson.

After looking at traffic patterns, the city determined that not only was the second lane not necessary, but forcing traffic to split before the girder and merge again was creating many “near collisions from a multitude of traffic maneuvers.”

“We just wanted [the council] to approve the concept of bringing the two lanes into one,” Anderson said.



The council gave their go-ahead Monday to a plan that will remove the right lane and replace it with a pedestrian walkway and landscape area. Instead of replacing the fill material that has led to slide problems, the city will leave the native soils — which have tested to be stable — and use jute matting and vegetation to create long-term stabilization.

“The traffic that goes through there doesn't really warrant two lanes,” said Mayor Dennis Dawes. “We won't have those situations where people wait until the last second to merge over and have potential collisions.”

The project will add signage and pavement marking to clarify which lanes are used to access I-5 and downtown. The city has budgeted $225,000 for the project, which will be paid out of the Transportation Benefit District, a sales tax approved by Chehalis voters last year. It’s one of two or three projects that will be funded by the TBD this year.

Anderson said the city is trying to get the project bid as quickly as possible, with the goal of finishing it this year.