Your request has been reviewed and assigned to the PW, MAINTENANCE Department.

Your request has been reviewed and assigned to the PW, ENGINEERING Department.

I agree with this request. I live in the area and have repeatedly been in a near miss or cutoff from vehicles not taking the marked "right only" at that light intersection to I-5 Southbound. I know have to check my right mirror each time I go through the light to be sure no one is there going straight too. Traffic also blocks the neighborhood street at 35th Ave S although a sign is posted to not block intersection.

I'll reach out to WSDOT whom operates this signal system to see if installing a right turn signal arrow can be done. I don't immediately see any reason that this can't be done from an engineering standpoint. Unfortunately, I don't think it will entirely solve the problem of folks illegally merging at the intersection. But if it deters a few vehicles daily from doing so, I suppose that's better than the alternative.
I'll keep you posted.

Thank you for making an effort to verify with WSDOT to determine if anything more can be done to help improve the safety at this intersection.

I have not reached out to WSDOT yet as I've been busy on some other items. That being said, I'm looking to talk with them in the next couple of weeks. I'll keep you posted.

Upon further review of the current eastbound signal configuration, I determined that converting the red ball to a red arrow would not be compliant with the Federal Highway Administrations design guidance per the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. The current signal configuration handles both through and right turn traffic which is why this can’t be done. Furthermore, adding a fourth signal head would be quite expensive and is not likely to fix the issue at hand when it comes to folks trying to merge within the intersection. Plus, I’m not certain that the existing signal arm is structurally sufficient to handle the weight from a fourth signal head.
However, there is one improvement we can make going forward which I think could be as effective as modifying the signal heads. I’m going to request that WSDOT mount an R3-8b sign to the eastbound signal arm that shows allowable turn movements. We already have one of these signs on the eastbound approach to the intersection, but we should also have one of these mounted to the signal arm itself. WSDOT will need to verify that the signal arm can handle the additional wind forces as a result of this new sign.
Aside from this, I’ll reach out to our police department to have them continue to monitor and ticket violators at this intersection. I know they’ve been out recently ticketing violators. Ultimately, the only solution that will solve this issue requires completely rebuilding this right turn lane to make it a slip lane. This slip lane would be separated from the eastbound through lane via a raised pork chop island. This was the configuration that was in place prior to WSDOT rebuilding this intersection and it worked just fine.
In 2026, the City plans to start design for a complete rebuild of South 200th Street between International Boulevard and Military Road. As part of this project, we’ll make it an engineering priority to resolve this eastbound right turn lane issue. I’m sorry for any inconvenience this currently causes, but I don’t think we’ll be able to completely resolve this problem for another couple of years.

Spoke with WSDOT today about mounting new R3-8b sign to signal mast arm. WSDOT's structural engineers are analyzing for wind loads and will get back to the City shortly. If the structural analysis checks out, WSDOT will procure and mount sign at no cost to the City.

Your request has been reviewed and assigned to the PWD, Maintenance Department.

Thank you for your request. It has been addressed and is now closed.