Dangerous Highway 2 will get concrete safety barrier near Snohomish

Snohomish County, Wash. — Highway 2 near Snohomish is about to get some lifesaving improvements.

A concrete barrier is planned for a 2-mile stretch of Highway 2. The barrier will start at Bickford Avenue and extend almost to the Pilchuck River Bridge. A 6 foot median is planned to extend on to Fryelands Boulevard in Monroe, according to the US-2 Safety Coalition.

Right now oncoming traffic is only separated by yellow lines -- not enough to stop deadly head-on crashes.

“Highway of death, the other ones I can’t repeat. It’s a two-lane country road doing duty as a federal and state highway, it’s absolutely ludicrous,” said John Seehuus, a Sultan City Council member and vice chair of the US-2 Safety Coalition.

The US-2 Safety Coalition obtained $10 million from the federal government to fund the safety improvements.

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Fred Walser is leading the charge to make US-2 safer. He's a retired Washington State Patrol trooper.

“During my WSP career I covered 34 fatal crashes on US-2 from Stevens Pass to the trestle and I can tell you where every one of them occurred,” said Walser, chair of the US-2 Safety Commission.

The barrier is expected to be about 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide.

Walser explained how it would prevent cars from drifting into oncoming traffic.

“If it’s going down the road and crosses the center, it’s going to hit the jersey barrier and go back into its lane. It’s not going to go across and hit somebody head on,” said Walser.

KIRO-7 went through Washington Department of Transportation statistics and found from January 2001 to today there have been 65 fatality collisions on US-2 from Everett to Stevens Pass, killing 69 people. There have been 153 serious injury collisions, according to WSDOT.

It will take a couple of years to install, but just knowing it's on the way, is comforting to Renee Quistdorf who drives to Snohomish every day.

“I’m relieved because I drive that a lot, every morning. I come from Everett,” said Quistdorf.

Cox Media Group