Residents, fire marshal warn of ‘traffic perfect storm’ from Sound Transit Stride 3 and concurrent projects

Lake Forest Park residents urged the City Council to press Sound Transit for more testing and mitigation after the agency said construction for its Stride 3 bus rapid transit (BRT) project could take as long as three years.

"I fear that a coming traffic armageddon will have a serious impact on safety and the security in our community," Lake Forest Park resident Julie Tournell said during public comment, citing the Stride 3 schedule and a group of other regional projects she said overlap with construction.

The residents’ concern centers on cumulative impacts: speakers listed six other nearby projects they say will coincide with Stride 3, including lane reductions and ramp closures on I‑5; roundabout and utility work in Shoreline and Lake Forest Park; fish‑passage and culvert replacements managed by WSDOT; and a Kenmore culvert project on Bothell Way. "The bus rapid transit project by itself will be hugely disruptive. But coupled with these other concurrent projects, it is a traffic perfect storm," Tournell said.

Why it matters: speakers said the combined projects could cause sustained congestion on Bothell Way and…