No longer an arterial in name only

Cheney council members got an earful at their Aug. 27 meeting from several residents upset about street signage and pavement marking designating a residential street as an arterial.

The street in dispute, 6th Street between Clay and North 2nd Street, was recently marked with a center divider and signage. According to information from the city's Public Works Department, 6th Street was designated an arterial in 1991 as part of the project that installed a traffic signal at the intersection of State Route 904 and Cheney-Spokane Road.

Vehicles coming off Cheney-Spokane or coming south on SR 904 either turn right, in the case of the latter, or travel straight through the signal off Cheney-Spokane onto 4th Street, which winds up to a stop sign on Clay. Clay is stripped and signed as an arterial, with traffic turning on to Clay eventually turning left onto 6th Street, which also has sidewalks as required by arterial construction.

"I believe at one time that these arterials were marked when they were first constructed, however through the years they were not maintained," Public Works Director Todd Ableman said in an Aug. 28 email.

According to city officials, however, traffic was turning on to 5th Street, which is not designated as an arterial, off of Clay. Residents complained to the city, which responded after looking into the issue by marking and striping 6th Street.

A resident who lives on the street, John Peak, asked the council why residents were not notified of the move and why 6th was chosen as an arterial. He noted that 5th Street naturally hooks up with Oakland Street, which eventually connects with North 6th Street near Betz Elementary and Cheney High School.

"It's great for somebody who doesn't live on these streets to be making these decisions," Peak said. "It defies logic. There's no consideration to the impacts on the neighborhoods."

Resident Patrick Moore also question the decision, noting that putting signage on Clay pointing towards 6th Street will increase the traffic on what was a quiet neighborhood street. Mayor Chris Grover asked Moore if he had noticed any difference since the signs went up, to which an unidentified audience member said "Oh yeah, and speed."

Ableman told the council and audience that eventually North 2nd Street from 6th to Elm and Oakland from North 2nd to North 6th Street would also be signed and marked as arterials.

"I feel that's a real bad mistake," Moore said.

City Administrator Mark Schuller said city officials would put a presentation together on the issue and present it at an upcoming council meeting in hopes of clarifying the situation. Ableman added that they would also look at 6th Street to see if it merited the designation.

"(We're) looking at doing an update on traffic volumes to see if markings can be exempt," he said in the Aug. 28 email.

According to RCW 47.26.090, arterials are state highways, county roads or city streets functionally classified as principal, minor or collector streets by the local street department in conjunction with regional planning organizations and the state's Transportation Improvement Board.

In a Sept. 3 interview, Ableman said that 4th and 5th streets had been experiencing the same problem as 6th Street with regards to traffic coming off of the 4th Street/Mary Street connection with the 1st Street and Cheney-Spokane Road intersection. Because of its designation as an arterial, 6th had been fitted with sidewalks for safety purposes whereas the other streets were not.

"When you designate arterials, and you get the funding, you have to build the side sidewalks," Ableman said.

In regular business, the council approved an amendment to the city's six-year transportation plan adding two new projects to the document. The first project is work in the next year in the area around Betz and the high school to be funded through a recently awarded $598,619 grant from the Safe Routes to Schools program.

The grant also comes with a 20 percent funding match from the Cheney School District. Ableman said this will include work on North 6th, North 8th and a bit on North 7th streets.

The other project was $250,000 in improvements proposed for the intersection of Betz Road and North 6th Street. That project is scheduled to occur in 2021.

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].