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Pierce County Council authorizes remaining $150,000 for neighborhood traffic safety projects
Summary
The council adopted resolution R2025-141S approving a list of small-scale street lighting and traffic-safety projects funded from a previously appropriated $300,000; the action released the remaining $150,000 and added two narrowly tailored projects by amendment.
The Pierce County Council on May 6 approved resolution R2025-141S to authorize the remaining $150,000 of a previously appropriated $300,000 for the Neighborhood Traffic Safety Program and requested the county engineer to review and authorize the proposed projects.
“Exhibit A includes the proposed projects,” council staffer Erica Rhett Hunt said, explaining the program funds small-scale street-lighting and traffic-safety improvements in unincorporated areas. The 2024–25 budget recognized the appropriation and the appropriation is tied to County Road Project 05/1950 in the six-year transportation improvement program.
Councilmembers adopted two amendments that each added a single, narrowly scoped project. Council amendment 1 (sponsored by Councilmember Krueger and moved by Councilmember Denson) adds reflective arrow signs on a curve on Waller Road East near Military Road East to warn motorists. Council amendment 2 (moved by Councilmember Denson) directs staff to install caution signs or other traffic-calming measures near 140th Street NW and 150th Avenue NW, an intersection cited by the sponsor as having frequent high-speed collisions.
Sarah Grice, county traffic engineer, described the department’s prioritization and approach. “Some locations may need a signal project which would exceed these funds,” she said, noting that lower-cost countermeasures often allow multiple sites to be addressed with limited dollars and that larger needs are added to signal priority lists and pursued through grants.
The clerk recorded a 4-0 roll-call vote in favor of R2025-141S as amended (Ayala: aye; Yombe: aye; Denson: aye; Hitchens: aye). Staff said the 2024 budget had already set aside $300,000 for the program and the resolution authorizes using the remainder of that appropriation.
Public comment included one in-person speaker who said his street was included on the list and raised unrelated concerns about code language used by builders; no online comments were raised on the resolution. Councilmembers emphasized that the program is intended for small-scale, low-cost safety solutions and that projects requiring greater investment would be prioritized separately and pursued for grant funding.
