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Safety improvements on US 2 to start this spring

By Joanna Small
By Joanna Small

MONROE, Wash. — After decades of lobbying, the people behind the push for safety improvements on Highway 2 through Monroe are getting results.

In the spring, work will begin on installing medians on what’s often been called “the highway of death.”

Fred Walser is a retired Washington State Trooper and the former Sultan police chief; John Seehuus is the Mayor of Sultan, and together they are the U.S. 2 Safety Coalition.

“Fred and I are the only two original members left,” Seehus explained.

They’ve been lobbying the Legislature for 22 years.

“You know, if you keep banging your head against the wall, it will open up a hole in the wall, and if you keep banging, it’s going to get bigger, and that’s what’s happened with the Highway 2 Coalition,” explained Walser.

The money was finally allocated to add 2, 4 and 6-foot medians with rumble strips on a 12-mile stretch of “the highway of death” in hopes of preventing more deaths.

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Among some of the earliest deaths -- were Walser's secretary at the police department and her husband.

“It shook the whole community, and then a few years later, we lost another lady, Genevieve, who had narcolepsy, and she drifted over because there were no rumble strips to wake her up,” Seehuus remembered.

This is a big deal, but not the whole deal.

“It’s a huge step, but we always want more, and in this case, we’re going to ask them to put the Jersey Bridge in from the east side of the Pilchuck Piver Bridge,” Walser told us.  That’s the next ask.

“I’ve made 125 trips to Olympia, and we’re going again next week,” Seehuus concluded.

Some concrete barriers will be installed in the new medians in 2020 but the pair would like to eventually see them extended all the way to Sultan.

Cox Media Group

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