City of Kent eyes November opening for Reith Road roundabouts

The city of Kent will soon have six roundabouts in town with the expected completion in November of two along Reith Road.

“We are excited to have the Reith Road roundabouts project under construction and looking forward to having the project completed,” City Public Works Director Chad Bieren said in an Oct. 28 email. “The plan is to open the road to traffic in November, then finish the last of the paving and the permanent lane striping in the spring.”

The $4.28 million project will change the existing stop sign controlled intersections of Reith Road with Lake Fenwick Road and South 253rd Street to single-lane compact roundabouts to improve traffic flow for people walking, biking and driving.

In between the roundabouts the outside travel lanes will be converted to separated one-way bike lanes while still maintaining needed capacity on the corridor with one-lane in each direction, according to city documents. The bike lanes will provide separated space for people who ride bikes, increase the separation between car travel lanes and the sidewalk, and help fill a gap in the city’s bike network.

People who walk will benefit from street crossings that will be shorter, simpler, and some will benefit from flashing beacons that flash when a button is pressed, according to city documents. The project also will extend the sidewalk towards Kent-Des-Moines Road (SR 516) on one side of Reith Road while providing rideable shoulders in both directions for bikes.

The city received an $1.59 million grant from the state Transportation Improvement Board (funded by the gas tax) to help pay for the project. The remain costs will be covered by a combination of monies from the city street fund (paid for by the city business & occupation tax) and city Transportation Impact Fees (charged to new developments and pre-existing structures with a major change in use), according to city documents.

In 2019, Sarah Kier sought improvements to the Reith Road intersection with Lake Fenwick Road, shortly after Larry Kier, 37, her brother, was struck and killed by a pickup driver as he walked across the street on Aug. 23, 2019.

The first roundabout in Kent was built in 2001 at 42nd Avenue South and South 216th Street by the developer of the Riverview neighborhood, Bieren said.

Kent’s three other roundabouts are at Fourth Avenue South and Willis Street; 108th Avenue SE and SE 264th Street; and 94th Avenue South and South 237th Place.

Bieren said city public works staff is working to add roundabouts at 116th Avenue SE and SE 248th Street; Meeker Street and Lincoln Avenue; and 94th Avenue South and South 233rd Place, which is part of a proposed residential development.

Bieren said he didn’t have statistics yet about the number of crashes at the roundabouts compared to when the streets were intersections. He said the city’s next Local Road Safety Plan update will be completed in about 18 months. He said a study of 108th Avenue SE and SE 264th Street could be done sooner because the project was paid for by a grant from the state Department of Transportation Highway Safety Improvement Program.

Bieren said there are three main benefits to roundabouts:

• Reduce serious injury and fatal crashes.

• Improve traffic operations – they tend to move traffic more effectively than traffic signals.

• Allow for more traffic movements than other traffic control – you can’t make a U-turn at an all-way stop, or at smaller, signalized intersections.

Reith Road in Kent will soon have two new roundabouts. COURTESY PHOTO, City of Kent