“The previous mayor of Lake Stevens was actually the one that started this project back in 2017,” Lake Stevens Mayor Brett Gailey said.

Construction for these projects will be conducted in three stages. Stage one included adding a new southbound lane near Market Street, which has already been completed.

The second stage includes construction of a northbound lane between 4th Street SE and 4th Street NE, which started late spring of 2021.

The new roundabouts will be located in the following areas: direct access from Frontier Village to SR 9 and SR 204; another improving the flow of traffic at Vernon Rd and 91st Ave NE; there will also be a roundabout installed at the intersections of SR 9 and Vernon/N Davies Rd. Lastly, one more roundabout will be added a little farther south towards the newer Costco located on South Lake Stevens Rd, which will remove the current 4-way intersection.

“In 2020, about 19,050 vehicles traveled through the SR 9/South Lake Stevens Road intersection per day… This project will construct a roundabout designed to handle high volumes of traffic and improve safety. The roundabout is expected to reduce collisions at the intersection by at least 50 percent,” website wsdot.wa explained.

The number one thing that everyone wants to avoid while being in a vehicle is getting into a wreck. The roundabouts being added are scientifically proven to decrease collisions.

“I know people, including myself, tend to focus on the people who do things like stop in the roundabout to let people in but when you look at the statistics they are safer. If there is a collision it’s more likely to be less severe than somebody running a red light at high speed,” LSHS Driver’s Education Instructor Rodger Anderson said.

The city’s main goal for sure is to keep everyone safe while transporting people in the most efficient way possible.

“I yield and make it safe to go before proceeding,” senior Haneen Al- Salman said.

The city is expected to run into some issues while trying to convert the entire highway into something new. Gailey informed the city that one of the roundabouts will be interfering with a culvert, a pipe carrying water, under a road.

What does this mean? This means that the construction crew will have to start over and make the culvert bigger for the fish to go through. This change increased the budget by 1 million dollars and added a wait time for this construction to continue.

With construction already occurring, the culvert will be one of the last things completed for this project due to the rules of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.