Maraysville's 2nd Street receives improvements

Marysville’s 2nd Street will be receiving a number of environmental and utility improvements through the end of the year as construction crews work in the area.

Safety improvements, water runoff filtration projects, and water main improvements are scheduled for the area.

Work will be happening on the street from State Avenue to 47th Avenue. The construction is scheduled to take about 100 days and is expected to be finished by the end of the year.

The budget for the improvements is $3.6 million with $1.3 million coming from a Washington State Department of Ecology grant and the remaining funds coming for the city’s budget.

“This is very similar to what people may have seen when they are driving around 3rd Street and, in fact, it some ways its a mirror image of that project,” said Patrick Gruenhagen, the senior project manager with the city of Marysville.

The 2nd Street improvements will have similar areas to collect rainwater as were put in on 3rd Street.

“There will be depressed areas that have plants and special soil,” said Gruenhagen. “They are meant to collect rainwater and have the plants filter out pollutants."

This prevents contaminants from getting further into local waterways.

“Right now it is just running off into the street and onto the catch basins on the side,” said Gruenhagen.

This method of filtering rainwater is one of the preferred methods for cities in recent years.

“A lot of people may not be familiar with the function of them,” said Gruenhagen. “They’re not just landscaping, but they are meant to cut down on the number of contaminants that get into our waterways."

After the environmental improvements, the sidewalk will be extended further into the street at crosswalk areas.

“These reduce the length of the crosswalk for pedestrians,” said Gruenhagen.

The thinner roadway also typically slow down drivers and discourage speeding.

“These bulb outs narrow the pathway of the road and are a feature we refer to as traffic calming,” said Gruenhagen. “So it’s an improvement from a pedestrian perspective as well as in slowing cars down for safety."

Finally, a new water main will be part of the construction.

“It’s just a good opportunity to upgrade that because we’re already doing work there,” said Gruenhagen.

Approximately 2,500 feet of new water main will be installed under the road.

The water main work is being done first with one neighborhood block being shut down at a time while work is happening.

“That is a big benefit for our contractors in their ability to get the work done quickly,” said Gruenhagen.

Once work begins to focus on the intersections they will not need to shut down entire blocks.

“There may be some single lane closures in the future,” said Gruenhagen.

City officials are also trying to listen to residents and meet their needs.

“One of the things we are aware of is that this work is being done in a residential setting,” said Gruenhagen.

“We’re doing what we can to meet the needs of the people living here,” such as ensuring mail can still be delivered, he added.