Traffic Woes at I-5/Rush Road Interchange in Focus at County Commission Meeting

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Ongoing discussions to mitigate a series of continuous traffic logjams at a local truck rest stop were highlighted at the Sept. 23 Board of County Commissioners meeting. 

Lewis County Commissioner Bobby Jackson referenced a recent gathering he attended that saw members of the Washington State Department of Transportation (DOT) address strategies to alleviate ongoing traffic congestion at the Interstate 5 exit to Rush Road in Napavine.

The congested area includes destinations such as Love’s Travel Stop, Bethel Church Assembly of God and a number of fast-food retailers, including Starbucks and McDonald’s.    

“The state legislature appropriated a little over $1 million to find a fix to the traffic situation down there. DOT has come out with a design,” added Jackson, who didn’t delve into specifics. “One million dollars doesn’t go a long way when you start talking about road work. So, I met with all the stakeholders, all the public works folks and DOT people to talk about what we can do with this money. What can we come up with now?” 

Former Lewis County Commissioner Ron Averill weighed in on the matter at the meeting, telling The Chronicle about a need for new signals and signage that would facilitate “getting trucks in and out.” 

Those solutions, however, would probably cost the state more dollars than they’re planning to spend, Averill said. 



Jackson told listeners he will continue to negotiate with state agency reps through the end of November in hopes of agreeing on other alternatives. 

“DOT is going to go back to the drawing board,” he stated. “Personally, I’d like for us to have something in hand so that when we approach state legislature next year, we’ll have something to show them … that this is what we’ve accomplished to get us to this point. The traffic situation down there is not a good one. The area is growing. We’ll continue to work on that.”    

Upon contacting the DOT on Jackson’s claims, a communications rep confirmed through the agency’s Chehalis-area engineer, Colin Newell, that the available monies for the enterprise would limit the state to execute short-term, temporary measures. 

What those measures are have yet to be determined, said the agency source, but will be announced in the near future. 

The DOT’s end goal, she added, was to ultimately determine and realize long-term solutions to make the location safer and less prone to excess vehicular crowding.