The City of Auburn has started the process of acquiring the right of way on the $22.5 million M Street Southeast grade separation project between 4th and 6th streets southeast.
City officials have begun negotiations with owners of properties on the east side of M Street Southeast. The design calls for the purchase of 10 full properties and portions of the roadway frontage, eight of them on the east side of M Street and 23 other properties for improvements. Right-of-way acquisition is slated to take up to one year.
If the city and property owners cannot agree on a price, the City may take the matter to court, where a judge would decide. This process, called condemnation, is only allowed for projects deemed public necessities in Washington state.
Project Manager Jacob Sweeting emphasized that the City does not want to resort to condemnation proceedings.
The City expects to start work in 2011 and finish by 2013. It is still on the hunt for construction money. But multiple sources, including the federal and state governments, the Ports of Tacoma and Seattle, and BNSF have agreed to contribute.
In the planning and design stages for more than a decade, the M Street grade separation project calls for:
• Construction of a new underpass for M Street Southeast and the two BNSF railroad tracks;
• Widening of M Street Southeast to allow for two lanes in both directions and for left-turn movements;
• Accommodations for non motorized traffic, including sidewalks and bike lanes.
• Stormwater detention and treatment facilities;
• Landscaping and other aesthetic treatments.
“Basically, we’re separating M Street Southeast from the at-grade crossing by building a railroad bridge and raising the tracks about four feet, and lowering M Street under the rail line,” Sweeting said. “At the same time, we’re taking what used to be a two-lane roadway and building additional lanes and a turn pocket for 4th Street and adding bike lanes and sidewalks.
“The bottleneck is under SR 18. There are no sidewalks there, and you are down to two lanes. It’s a dangerous area,” Sweeting said. “We get calls all the time, especially from people who live in King County Housing Authority housing, who say, ‘Hey, when are you going to put in sidewalks or do something here, because we can’t go through here safely?'”
According to City documentation, the maximum depth of new construction will be about 21 feet below the existing street level. The maximum wall height is expected to be about 25 feet, although the walls on either side of M Street would be about the same height.
In 1997, BNSF announced plans to reopen its Stampede Pass Line to longer freight trains and improve the Pass tunnel. Completion of that work will push 20 trains daily, some of them half a mile long and moving at five miles an hour, through Auburn.
“From a regional standpoint, the reason we are getting state funding and why the ports are putting money into this is because they want to be able to use these tracks for heavier, longer trains and want to put more trains on the tracks,” Sweeting said. “Without the grade separation, the impacts to the roadway would be too much. …
“Without it, in the near future Auburn would see many trains crossing at that location and that whole side of town would be completely gridlocked, and the congestion would spill onto Auburn Way South and onto SR 18 and SR 167.”
Sweeting cited other benefits, including:
• Elimination of safety hazards, including those that face the 50 school buses that cross the BNSF tracks at that location every day;
• Elimination of the possibility of pedestrian-train accidents with the addition of sidewalks and pedestrian crossings;
• Abatement of sound pollution. With the tracks separated from the street, engineers will no longer need to lay on the horns every time they cross.
• Safety improvements. The pavement in the project area is in poor condition, and its replacement, designed to handle traffic loading for the next 25 year to 30 years, should be much quieter and safer.
At the same time, the City is just starting the right-of-way acquisition process for the A Street Northwest connection between 3rd Street Northwest and 14th Street Northwest. This $12.5 million project also emerged from the 1994 Stampede Pass study. Two others projects, the 3rd Street Grade Separation and the 277th Street grade separation are done. It will create a parallel route along the BNSF mainline tracks and connect the 15th Street and the Third Street grade separations.
“This will allow people to actually get back and forth across the BNSF tracks when the Stampede Pass rail is operating and trains are on the tracks,” said Project Manager Ingrid Gaub. “It will help alleviate that overall congestion through the train tracks. What it also does is connect a route from downtown Auburn not only to the 15th Street Northwest business district but all the way up to 277th Street via B Street. When that’s done, it will result in another almost complete north-south connector between the northern edge of the city and the downtown.
“We actually have a portion of the project that has been built by a developer as a contribution to the project Mohawk Plastics and then we have some of the right of way dedicated with a development, which was part of a previous development agreement with what was the Multi-Care site. So we have about four parcels we need to complete acquisition on for partial takes. There are no residences, it’s basically all industrial or commercial. Everything is a partial taking.
The project is short of about $3.2 million for construction. Most of the funding is federal grants. Big chunk donated work from developer and donated right of way the City already has.
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What if the City needs my property or a portion of my property?
• The City reviews comparable market transactions and other information to establish an offer amount. If this figure doesn’t provide the basis for a negotiated settlement, the City will complete an appraisal. Property owners may ask for an appraisal any time before accepting an offer.
• Otherwise, an independent appraiser will complete a property appraisal. A second independent appraiser reviews the appraisal and decides if it meets federal regulations.
• A determination of value is made and the City uses this figure to make an offer.
• The owner may choose to obtain their own appraisal or seek the advice of someone capable of evaluating the City’s offer. The City will reimburse up to $750 of the cost of getting such advice.
• If an acceptable settlement can be reached, the City and owner sign a purchase and sale agreement. If not, the City may move to acquire the property through condemnation.
For additional information, contact: Jacob Sweeting, Project Engineer, (253) 804-5059, via e-mail jsweeting@auburnwa.gov.
