The state Department of Transportation says it’s close to opening the fourth and final roundabout along Guide Meridian, but it needs another couple of dry days before it can finish.

Crews haven’t determined exactly when they’ll open the roundabout at Guide and River Road. They need two dry days to pave the intersection and finish some electrical work.

Click here to see more.

Crews will work on finishing the five pedestrian crossings around Bellingham that were paid by the federal economic stimulus bill next week.

They’ll begin installing the signal poles and doing pavement marking at the crossings, which are at the following locations:

Maplewood/Northwest
Lakeway/Grant
Maple/Newell
Alabama/Grant
York/Railroad

Flaggers will be on site to direct traffic through the work, but the delays aren’t expected to be long.

Also, there won’t be any street construction in Bellingham next Thursday (Thanksgiving) and Friday because of the holiday, according to Bellingham Public Works.

A Whatcom County man has sued the Whatcom Transportation Authority after a paratransit vehicle rear-ended him at an intersection, requesting the court award him damages.

The case was filed back in February but I somehow missed. My co-worker found it and brought it to me the other day.

In the case, Jeff Goode, was northbound on Guide Meridian at Smith Road on Jan. 2, 2006, waiting on his Isuzu Trooper for traffic to clear so he could turn left. A paratransit vehicle driven northbound by WTA driver Alisha Vanderveen allegedly rear-ended him. The man was injured and his motorcycle damaged, according to court documents. He had a cervical strain, or basically whip-lash to his spine.

The lawsuit asks the court to award money based on pain and suffering (both mental and physical), emotional distress and loss of enjoyment of life, physical disability and disfigurement, income loss and loss of earning capacity, past and future medical expenses, property damages, reasonable attorneys fees and costs and other damages to be determined at trial.

WTA’s attorney, Mark Lee, formally asked for a statement of damages, and the plaintiff sent this:

Future wage loss: $50,000 to $100,000
Past medical expenses: $7,067.20 (does not include most recent medical billings)
Future medical costs: estimated at $25,000
Past lost income: $1,580
General damages: An amount that the jury will determine at trial based on the evidence. The plaintiff asserts damages in the general range of $75,000 to $200,000, but it could be more if evidence shows.

But WTA, after seeing the alleged damages, asked the court to send it to mandatory arbitration, insted of going to a court trial. Lee wrote that the judge under state law can force the issue to go to arbitration if he or she determines the damages claims are for $50,000 or less. In this case, Lee wrote, the plaintiff hasn’t sought any medical help since November 2006, and the estimates of future medical costs aren’t substantiated. Also, the plaintiff claims that he had to switch jobs after the crash, but his new job pays more, Lee wrote, making the claim about future lost wages baseless.

Today, Whatcom County Superior Court Judge Chuck Snyder will decide whether to send it to mandatory arbitration.

I’ll probably wait to write anything for print until after the arbitration and the parties know how much WTA will pay to compensate the man.

Oh, and I did a court search and can’t find any evidence that the WTA driver has a poor driving record. In fact, there were no entries for her in Whatcom County that I could find.

Click here to see the complaint.

Click here to see an affidavit in support of arbitration.

Click here to see a memo of law in support of arbitration.

After we got a letter to the editor regarding street repairs along Sunset Drive, I checked with Bellingham Public Works and discovered that crack sealant came out and it awaiting repairs.

That’s on the stretch between Orleans and Woburn streets.

Chad Bedlington, superintendent of maintenence at Public Works, told me he believes it’s because the contractor didn’t do a good job of installing it. If that’s the case, then the contractor will reinstall it at their expense, per the contract, he said.

But it it’s possible that cracks in the street are too big for the sealants to work. They’ll work with the contractor before replacing the sealant to figure out what the cause was, he said.

The city hopes to have them replaced by the end of the year, but the work depends on dry weather and relatively warm temperatures, so it may have to wait until spring, he said.

Meanwhile, the letter writer said, “The eastbound lane has been ripped up for months where the lane lines connect. There is debris and junk in both lanes that fly up onto ars and windshields. When will this section of the road be getting the needed repairs? I know money is tight, but with the huge amount of traffic this part of Sunset Drive gets on a daily basis, you’d think a more permenent solution would have already been applied. I hope they’re not waiting for spring and drier weather!”

Have you driven that stretch recently? I drove it eight days ago to go to the Whatcom Transportation Authority board executive committee meeting, and it didn’t seem bad to me.

Bellingham Public Works staff are asking city leaders to approve a 2010 base Transportation Impact Fee rate that’s 14 percent higher than this year’s rate, according to the council packet.

Developers pay the impact fees to help pay for the transportation impacts that their projects have, as a way to make growth pay for itself.

Under city law, each year the staff runs a calculation to figure out how much the next year’s rate will be. The calculation, which is relatively complex, involves looking at how much the city has spent on transportation to serve new development and how much it plans to spend, as well as how many trips new developments are expected to generate.

After running the calcuation, the number showed a base rate of $1,932 per evening rush-hour trip for 2010. That’s a 14 percent increase over this year’s rate.

Depending on what developers are building, they pay more of less, because different types of developments have more or less traffic impacts. A single-family house is expected to generate slightly more than one evening rush-hour trip, so the rate would be $1,951 per unit.

Mobile homes, for example, are significantly less, and would be charged $1,082 per unit.

Many other types of units are based on the square footage. Medical clinics are particularly high, for example, and would have to pay $10.01 per square foot. Convenience stores are really, really high, and they would have to pay $78.95 per square foot for a new market.

Those fee help the city pay for improve the transportation system, but developers pay those fees on and they eventually land on the homebuyer, raising the price of housing.

Click here to see more.

What do you think?

More people are expected to drive instead of fly during this Thanksgiving holiday, AAA predicts.

That’s according to this article in USA Today. Click here to read it.

Also, in many places the weather is supposed to be pretty nasty. The National Weather Service says the following for Bellingham starting Wednesday, when AAA predicts most people will begin traveling for Thanksgiving:

Wednesday: A chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 52.

Wednesday Night: Rain likely. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 42.

Thanksgiving Day: Rain likely. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 51.

Seattle is about the same as Bellingham.

Here’s what it says for Portland:

Wednesday: A chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 51.

Wednesday Night: A chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 42.

Thanksgiving Day: A chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 51.

And here’s what it says for Spokane:

Wednesday: Mostly cloudy, with a high near 42.

Wednesday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 33.

Thanksgiving Day: A chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 43.

Right now, the state Department of Transportation says that rain and snow are likely next Wednesday through Thanksgiving day. Click here to see the live conditions. Click here to see the mountain pass extended forecast.

Click here for information if you’re planning to take the state’s ferries for the holiday.

The state Department of Transportation is asking the city of Blaine permission to do up to 50 nights of construction work during the project next year to install roundabouts at D Street and Interstate 5.

The Blaine City Council will consider approving the request to do work at night on Monday.

According to the council packet, the DOT offered various construction schedules, ranging from short duration high-intensity work (meaning major closures) to longer-duration lower-intensity work (meaning the street would still have lanes open. Business owners decided that getting it over quickly would be less bad for their businesses, the packet states.

That’ll mean more street closures, including the full closure of D Street below the freeway.

The DOT plans to work seven days a week and at night to finish the work, which involves installing roundabouts at the bottom of both northbound and southbound ramps. The DOT is also offering the contractor, who hasn’t been selected yet, a $10,000 a day bonus for getting the work done early (up to a maximum of 10 days).

The DOT is planning to advertise for bids on December 7. Work is scheduled between April 1 and June 1.

“By working nights and weekends there willbe a greater chance we can finish our most restrictive operations by the summer months,” wrote Akberet Ghebreghzabiher, air quality, acoustics and energy specialist at the DOT, to the city manager. “Without this variance weekend and holiday work cannot be mandated or allowed, therby increasing the overall length of time the WSDOT needs in this area.”

The DOT is proposing to equip all trucks with quieter backup warning devices (or lights instead of audible beeps), well-maintened dump truck liners and secured tailgates. It’s the standard kind of stuff the DOT proposes when asking for noise variances.

The council will consider approving the request at 7 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 23, in City Hall, 344 H Street.

Click here to see more in the council packet.

Click here to see my last post on this topic.

Traffic Talk reader Blain just asked why Whatcom Transportation Authority is planning to ask voters on a sales tax increase in April instead of doing it during this last general election earlier this month.

I’ll put together a brief timeline of info I can find about the budget process.

July 9: Board in executive committee hears report from General Manager Richard Walsh. He’s talking specifically about new technologies on buses. He said there will be more to talk about when the board holds a budget work session in August.

July 16: I didn’t attend this meeting, and I don’t have notes for this meeting. I’ll see about getting them.

August 13: Official minutes show no mention of the 2010 budget. My notes don’t reflect discussion of the budget or a sales tax increase.

Sept. 17, 2009: Meeting minutes show that WTA General Manager Richard Walsh told the board the staff is working on the 2010 budget and will present a draft to the executive committee of the board on October 8. Changes made at that meeting would be made and presented at the November executive committee meeting. The public hearing would happen in November, with board consideration of approval in December. This appears to be about the same schedule as in past years, including last year. The minutes don’t reflect any mention of major service cuts or a potential sales tax increase.

October 15: Budget work session is held by the board. A presentation is given showing the proposed cuts for the 2010 budget. Jim Ackerman is the first person to mention a possible sales tax increase, saying the voters should decide. Seth Fleetwood then asked a question about the increase. Jack Louws spoke against the idea of an increase. Mel Hansen said he thinks asking for a tax increase is premature and argues for making reasonable cuts. Dan Pike spoke in support of a ballot measure. Barbara Ryan said she wouldn’t want to ask voters for an increase unless it would mean more service. Pete Kremen said he’s not totally against going to voters, but they shouldn’t ask them in a hasty matter. He expressed doubt that voters would approve a sales tax increase during these economic times. Jack Weiss said he doesn’t think WTA should ask voters for a tax increase based on an unsustainable model. Ackerman said he’s not saying they should go to the ballot immediately, but at some point. They should dip into reserve funds for putting a budget together next year, he said. (The following is from my notes:) Dan Pike was the first to mention that he believes they should try to go to voters in May, after Jack Louws has suggested it could take a year to get to the ballot. He said it’s responsible to give voters a choice. They could still have time to educate voters that if they go for one-tenths of 1 percent, it’s not the final solution. They would have time to put together a meaningful process to give people a real choice. (This is from the minutes): The board passed a motion that didn’t mention a sales tax increase and instead asking the staff to bring two budget options forward for public comment with different amount of service cuts.

November 12: (This is according to my notes, not the official minutes) During the executive committee board meeting, after budget presentations, Ackerman immediately moves that they send the proposed sales tax increase to voters. It passes the committee 5-0.

Even with Whatcom Transportation Authority asking voters next April to approve a sales tax increase, the agency’s staff is looking at some cuts starting in 2010.

First, managers plan to cut the equivalent of 3.4 full-time positions starting January 1, simply by not filling positions that’ll be vacant after people choosing to leave. That’ll mean that starting next year, there will no longer be customer service people at the downtown station to answer questions or sell bus passes.

Also, management is still proposing to cut about $850,000 in expenses by doing the following:

1. Replace high-maintenence bus fleet: $115,000 savings
2. Reorganize workload: $215,000
3. Change laundry vendors: $10,000
4. Print fewer transit guides and change bus pass vendor: $92,000
5. Reduce professional services and advertising: $99,000
6. Long-term telecom contract: $18,000
7. Reduce IT licensing and services: $40,000
8. Reduce utilities costs: $25,000
9: Defer capital purchases: $224,000

The agency is starting from what General Manager Richard Walsh in 2008 said was a bare bones budget. The 2009 budget was already slimmed down quite a bit from the 2008 one. Staff managed to cut expenses without cutting any service. Specifically, $4.83 million in expenses was cut in the 2009 budget, including everything from delaying capital purchases to cutting positions.

Still, an employee at WTA, Mike Toner, spoke this morning to the board and urged it to require more cost-savings measures in the agency. Through his 20 years of working for government, he’s seen a lot of waste. He understands that it happens, he said.

Now is the time to keep transit going, but the board should ensure the staff spends money responsibly, he said. You have to look at every little cost and ask whether it’s something that can be put off until there are more funds available.

The fare increases at Whatcom Transportation Authority drove down ridership during October, the agency’s general manager reported this morning.

Effective October 1, WTA increased fares for a single ride from 75 cents to $1. Months general permits were increased from $20 to $25.

The results was a 5 percent reduction in ridership in October, compared to the same month last year.

Overall though, WTA’s ridership continues to climb this year. Looking at the whole year through October, ridership is up by about 6.7 percent, compared to the same period last year.