The West Seattle Transportation Coalition has sent a letter to the Port of Seattle regarding their collective thoughts on the Environmental Impact Statement for the Terminal 5 upgrades.

Move the People.
July 5, 2016
Port of Seattle
Pier 66
Seattle, WA 98104
Re: Comments on the Terminal 5 Draft Environmental Impact Statement

To Whom It May Concern:

The West Seattle Transportation Coalition (WSTC) is a peninsula-wide organization working to address transportation and mobility issues for Seattle’s largest constituency – the nearly 100,000 people living on the 10 square miles of the West Seattle Peninsula. The WSTC focuses most on ingress-egress and mobility issues for the West Seattle Peninsula. The West Seattle Bridge Transportation Corridor (WSBTC), which crosses Terminal 5 (T5) and Harbor Island, is the city’s busiest transportation artery. It carries nearly 118,000 vehicles a day (10,300 on the Spokane St Swing (low) Bridge, 107,300 on the High Bridge (SDOT 2014)).

The Terminal 5 upgrade is a significant project that will contribute jobs and commerce to Seattle’s prosperity. It will also cause impacts in several areas. Most significant for peninsula residents are congestion and traffic management challenges that trucking and other carrier operations will create as they serve huge (12,000-18,000 TEU) container ships expected to call at T5. Related challenges include air pollution, light and noise pollution, lost efficiency and productivity caused by bridge- and railroad related traffic delays, and others.

Comments presented here reflect WSTC suggestions for improvement, and concerns for inclusion in the DEIS. Our goal is to help create final T5 design and construction that works for all communities connected to T5 – the West Seattle Peninsula, Georgetown, and SODO.

Traffic related issues:
1. Traffic Report study:
• Expand scope beyond E. Marginal Way, to include the entire WSBTC and its surface and elevated roadways, from the east side of the West Seattle hill (approximately Harbor Ave) eastward to I-5.
• Focus on creating holistic improvements that benefit the entire corridor, including (a) additional or improved high Bridge access ramps to and from connecting roadways (SR-99, 1st Ave, 4th Ave, 6th Ave S/Airport Way), and (b) Spokane St surface street signalized intersections at 1st, 4th and 6th Avenues, and signalized intersections on Horton St at 1st and 4th Avenues.
• Discuss Airport Way intersections at Spokane St & Diagonal Way, with regard to existing and projected T-5 traffic through those intersections.

2. East-West Flow Harbor Avenue SW to I-5:
• Interconnect signals at signalized intersections; use dynamic signal control; make left turn changes (restriction during peak traffic times); signal interconnect etc.
West Seattle Transportation Coalition / Comments on Port of Seattle DEIS
• Add messages to existing warning signage on Fauntleroy Way & Admiral Way, to alert West Seattle motorists when T-5 is fully active, so they can avoid the low bridge.
• If possible, limit hours of T5 operations and/or truck movements, to reduce Lower Spokane St congestion during peak AM and PM drive times.

3. Traffic Concurrency needs to be disclosed
Directors Rule 5 – 2009, Feb. 16, 2009 Attachment C provides data for the screen-lines. Screen-line analysis was not conducted (westbound direction on screen-line 3.11 West Seattle Bridge at Spokane Street is noted to have a 2008 v/c ratio of 1.15 with the City limit set at 1.2.).

4. Truck queuing:
Good staging space exists on-site at T-5. At-grade street structure width near the gate measures approximately 36-feet. It could potentially be re-striped west-bound to provide two lanes in lieu of one, or to provide more on-site storage, or a dedicated right turn at the base.

5. Chelan Five-Way Intersection:
• The T-5 Traffic Report mentions closing the north access at the intersection. A possibly better
choice: create a right in/out at this existing access.
• West Marginal Way is an underutilized arterial that serves T-5 traffic to and from the Kent/Auburn Industrial area. With a right in/out, trucks coming from the south can turn right into T5. During a train event, they can turn left up the ramp to the Spokane Street Swing Bridge, and left again to ingress via the T-5 signal. Leaving the site to go south, trucks would egress via the ramp to the signal, then turn right and circle around to West Marginal Way.
• Revising the north access to T-5 from the intersection to right in/out could eliminate a signal phase and improve the operation of this intersection (e.g., S-bound traffic could cross with the Delridge phase, and then go E-bound with the West Marginal Way phase; and E-bound/W-bound could potentially operate concurrently (contained in “27 Point Memo,” p.3)
• Improve signal coordination so a train running on T5, parallel to Marginal-Spokane, doesn't trip all signals to “stop” for the five lanes of traffic entering the intersection (contained in “27 Point Memo,” p.3)
• A queuing analysis is required for potential queue storage deficiencies along Spokane St., between the Chelan 5-way intersection and the east T-5 access.
• Work with SDOT, and with local stakeholders – from Nucor Steel to Greyline, to upgrade and coordinate signal equipment and traffic flows, from SW Andover-Delridge Way SW through intersection to W Marginal Way.

6. Infrastructure improvements:
• Examine feasibility of adding a second north-bound lane to I-5, between the West Seattle Bridge and the I-90 exit
• Examine feasibility of adding a second exit lane to the I-90 off-ramp, to potentially reduce WS Bridge east-bound to I-5 north-bound traffic queuing
West Seattle Transportation Coalition / Comments on Port of Seattle DEIS
• Fund and/or contribute to funding and constructing such infrastructure improvements as Lander St overpass, WSBTC signal upgrades, W Marginal Way-to-Alki Trail bicycle flyover, etc. Interagency cooperation:
• Coordinate with Seattle Dept. of Transportation, to implement elements of the November 2015
(Rasmussen) $600,000 Green Sheet ($100K for corridor improvements & upgrades, $500K for ITS signage), the Inter-Departmental Team's "27 Point Memo."
• Coordinate Port of Seattle Traffic Study with City of Seattle Freight Master Plan (FMP), to identify and incorporate recommendations. (DEIS Traffic Study Appendix C references only four of the FMP’s six recommendations: East Marginal Way / S Hanford Street Intersection Improvements; S
Hanford St & Main SIG Yard Access; Lower Spokane St Freight-Only
Project; S Spokane St ITS Upgrades).

WSTC also supports addressing these related issues:
Monitor Air Quality at Terminal 5: The Port must monitor air quality at T5, where terminal operations will occur, and which is located adjacent to the WSBTC, where most of the peninsula’s traffic congestion and air pollution output is generated.

Environmental Accounting: We suggest integrating a pricing protocol into planning and budgeting, that will account for costs of carbon footprint, and productivity and efficiency losses related to traffic congestion. This will help improve cost-benefit analyses, decision-making, design, planning and buildouts
related to transportation.

The WSTC looks forward to seeing the Port of Seattle incorporate these suggestions into its EIS, and its planning, as it designs and builds out improvements to the Terminal 5 area.

In Community,

West Seattle Transportation Coalition Board
info@westseattletc.org / www.westseattletc.org