The Centralia City Council received an update Tuesday night on the North Lewis County Industrial Access project, a study on the feasibility of creating a new Interstate 5 exit between Centralia and Grand Mound to improve access to industrial areas in north Lewis County and thereby improve the local economy.
Thera Black, a transportation planning manager from consultant SCJ Alliance, briefed the council on the study, which recommends a number of projects from the small and inexpensive to large efforts costing tens of millions of dollars.
While the projects focus on transportation, Black said the study has a broader intent.
“It’s actually really an economic development project,” she said, saying the groups participating have a goal of stimulating growth in family wage jobs in Centralia.
Lewis County is the project lead, with partners including but not limited to Thurston County, Centralia, Bucoda, the Chehalis Tribe, the Lewis Economic Development Council, the Centralia School District and the Federal Highway Administration.
“We were brought on board to help facilitate that process and figure out what the transportation solutions are,” Black said.
The largest recommendation of the group is to pursue a three-phase project to add a freeway exit at Reynolds Avenue and update exits at Harrison Avenue and Mellen Street to keep freight traffic on the freeway and off Centralia’s streets.
“Key to all of this is pulling truck traffic off the Harrison interchange,” Black said.
Ideally, the group is hoping to get funding through the Washington state Department of Transportation’s Connecting Washington program, which Black said set aside $50 million starting in 2025 for improving access from Interstate 5 to industrial properties.
A new exit from I-5 in Lewis County serving the Industrial Park at TransAlta, or IPAT, could qualify, she said.
As part of the study, SCJ Alliance used computer models to evaluate a number of options, some of which were ruled out early, Black said.
“There’s a reason after 100 years of settlement in the Zenkner Valley there’s not a direct route through Zenkner Valley,” she said, about one option the consultants explored.
They used the computer models to rule out ideas that weren’t realistic over a study period of five months. They learned that a freeway exit at the Lewis/Thurston leading to a direct route to IPAT wasn’t feasible.
“We didn’t want people to get excited about something that really didn’t have a chance to happen,” she said.
Phase 1 of the proposed freeway interchange project would add freeway exits and an entrance in the Reynolds Avenue area, providing easier access to industrial areas. Phases 2 and 3 would add raised collector/distributor lanes at Harrison Avenue and Mellen Street.
Phase 1 is projected to cost $33.3 million with Phase 2 at $9.6 million and Phase 3 at $10.4 million.
The study identifies a total of eight strategies with 21 separate actions. Costs for those individual actions range from $50,000 to $50 million.
“You’ve got the gamut from very small to very large recommendations,” Black said.
In November, the partnership identified specific projects to start in 2018. The timeline extends through 2023 and beyond.
Projects targeted to begin in 2018 include minimizing incompatible land uses near industrial areas through zoning regulations and comprehensive plans, and updating development standards for freight routes.
Black noted Centralia’s busy rail lines complicate travel through industrial areas.
“The train blockage issues underscore everything,” she said.
Improving railroad crossings is also a project targeted to begin in 2018.
For more information, go to www.lewisindustrialaccess.com
