While green lights are showing for a proposed new solid waste transfer station at Clemons Road, that means red lights soon will be showing for commuters on Highway 12.

The new Waste Connections, Inc. transfer station, when built, will be accessible from a private road off North Clemons Road. The property is west of the National Guard Armory. It will replace the current transfer station.

First publicized in 2015, the plan of the new transfer station has changed little since it was announced. When it was announced, the project was estimated at $7 million, and in total would take up about 20 acres.

The project will be divided into two phases. Currently, Waste Connections is seeking county permits for phase 1, 10 acres of the project. The company is not announcing a timeline until the permits are approved.

“It’s in other people’s hands now,” Waste Connections site manager Roger Swalander said.

While a new timeline could not be provided, representatives of the company told the county in 2015 they were anticipating the new transfer facility would be operational by late 2017.

Swalander said the new transfer station will be safer for employees and customers, and better for the environment. Van Winkle Creek runs along the current transfer station’s property.

“It will be a more modern facility, and it’s safer for everyone involved — operationally and environmentally,” Swalander said.

Traffic signal

In order to mitigate safety and congestion issues of relocating the transfer station to Clemons Road the company is planning to install a traffic signal on Highway 12 at Clemons Road.

The traffic signal will be activated based on demand — meaning vehicles on Clemons Road approaching the highway will trigger the signal. Traffic on Highway 12 then will have a red light and stop at Clemons Road to allow for vehicles to safely enter the highway.

A private traffic study was submitted to the state Department of Transportation and ultimately approved. Waste Connections had hired SCJ Alliance to perform the study and design the traffic signal and accompanying highway striping revisions.

The study looked at three options to mitigate traffic at the intersection: a traffic signal, a roundabout, or no action. While the traffic signal will impede the highway’s traffic flow, not every vehicle will be impacted by the signal as they would with a roundabout.

“With the multi-lane roundabout, it would have made a big footprint. We basically would have been slowing down every single truck coming up the hill to 20 mph,” said Bob Jewell, SCJ Alliance senior vice president and founder.

The Grays Harbor County commissioners penned a letter of support for a traffic signal to the Department of Transportation in December 2015. In a conversation last month, the commissioners noted that the letter supported the traffic signal over a roundabout, assuming those were the only options.

An anonymous letter sent to The Vidette and the Grays Harbor Newspaper Group criticized the traffic study for reviewing too few options and for not involving public input.

Dave Ziegler, an Olympia Region engineer with the state Department of Transportation, noted that the project is a private project, not a DOT project.

“It’s not subject to the same sorts of public input process,” Ziegler said in December. “They are required to submit an analysis to traffic control and that was reviewed by an engineer.”

The funding for the design, construction, as well as DOT time and oversight, are all paid for by Waste Connections.

Doug Adamson, a DOT communications representative, highlighted that safety is a top priority for DOT.

To ensure a safer situation, a “beacon” will be installed about 1,000 feet from the traffic signal. As the traffic signal is triggered, the beacon also will flash to warn drivers of the upcoming signal. The beacon will be activated only when the traffic signal is in use.

“The traffic signal is going to provide a green light for most of the time,” Jewell said.

Residents living at the neighborhood on Clemons Road south of the intersection will benefit from the signal, allowing them to enter the highway with greater ease, and those residents likely will avoid most of the transfer station traffic due to the schedule of the trucks.

“Residents there will like it,” Jewell said. “Most of the heavy trucks will be done for the day by the evening peak, and will have left before the morning peak.”

In addition to the traffic signal, the lanes will be revised. Westbound and eastbound traffic both will have their own turn lanes for Clemons Road. Westbound traffic entering the highway from North Clemons Road will have an acceleration lane. The current acceleration lanes in the center of the highway will be repurposed to fit the revisions.

The lane revisions will be made at night and the work is not expected to result in daytime lane closures, Jewell said.

DOT officials, Jewell said, will set the timing of the traffic signal to ensure it serves the movement of traffic.

Corners onto North Clemons Road for westbound Highway 12 traffic will be widened to allow for larger trucks.