Manson Community Council seeks roundabout at SR 150 intersection amid safety concerns

WENATCHEE — Mike Kirk, Jeff Conwell, Rene Commons and Dom Amor were on hand at the Chelan-Douglas Transportation Council (CDTC) meeting on July 10 for a reason: To represent the unincorporated community of Manson in an effort to improve safety along State Route 150.

Specifically, the Manson Community Council was there to ask what kind of support they could get from Chelan County in building a roundabout at the intersection of SR 150, Mill Road and Wapato Lake Road, a spot that a casual traveler might recognize as the turnoff to either the boat launch to the south or the 12 Tribes Lake Chelan Casino to the north.

There’s not much of a slowdown required of traffic moving along SR150, which runs east and west at that intersection. Cars are often required to creep as close to the highway as possible in order to see around large vehicles in front of or beside them. That limited sight line has caused accidents, as council president Mike Kirk pointed out during his presentation to the CDTC.

Complicating matters is the fact that Mill Road is the entrance to the Colville Confederated Tribes RV Park, which has 36 hookup sites — meaning the aforementioned large vehicles are at that intersection quite often. Kirk pointed out that the adjacent park had provided him with numbers, and that more than 3,900 vehicles had passed through that short road in the month of June alone.

“We know that this is a difficult intersection, because there used to be a right hand turn lane right here,” Kirk said, pointing on a screen to the northeast corner of the intersection. “That right hand turn lane was removed because of an accident, and there are probably statistics on how many more there were.”

Tack on the fact that there’s a gas station at the northwest corner where the RVs fill up, and where people fill their boats before going to the launch site, and you have congestion unlike anywhere else along SR150.

“I’ve seen as many as eight cars stacked up in the left-hand turn lane, including a semi trailer, just recently,” said Kirk. “But some of that has to do with our tourism industry and the fact that this is the heavy time of the year for us, or maybe [it’s] going to get more heavy over July. 

But when it came to who might pay for a traffic improvement in the area, the room fell silent, until Chris Keifenheim, the Region Director for the Washington State Department of Transportation, spoke up.

“In the last ten years, we’ve had 13 collisions at that intersection, numbers that are either via State Patrol or Sheriff’s Office or police that are out there, so there could be some collisions that aren’t included in the numbers, but we’ve had 13 reported collisions in 10 years, and 3 injury collisions in the last ten years,” said Keifenheim.

“So those numbers are actually a little better than we expect for an intersection of this type, and because of that, it’s not going to be prioritized for state funding for improvements,” Keifenheim explained. “My recommendation would be looking for grants, or funding through boards such as this,” he said, referring to the CDTC meeting. “From DOT’s perspective, a roundabout would be a great thing here, and those injury collisions, we probably would have zero in ten years. [But] when we look at improvements, we look at them on a statewide basis and this isn’t one that would prioritize high enough for the limited funding that we have right now.”

Chelan Mayor Erin McCardle told the council that “This is part of the overall Lake Chelan traffic analysis that we’ve been talking about. Looking at the land capacity analysis for what’s coming, it’s just going to continue to add traffic to Highway 150. Thirteen accidents is a lot for Chelan. We’re not going to have less people driving in and out of Chelan,” she said. “Look at what happened this last Sunday, where we had a car hit and take down two power poles. The backup was insane. Had there been any kind of emergency in Manson, it would have been a disaster.”

Kirk reminded the CDTC that Manson is unincorporated, so “it any grants are requested, they have to come through the county.” It could be that this was Kirk and the Manson Community Council’s aim the entire time — to successfully convince representatives of Chelan County to go for the plan and act as Manson’s advocate in the matter.

Ultimately, the Manson Community Council didn’t hear exactly what they were hoping for. It could be that a roundabout happens as a result of a bond or grant. It could be that residents will have to wait and see what the Colville Tribe intends to do, as a rumored roundabout a little further down the road could be in the works as they expand their casino property to include a hotel.

All parties made clear, however, that everyone with any sense agrees that a roundabout is a good fit for the intersection, for a variety of reasons: Traffic flow, safety, and even freight and commerce movement. It’s just that nobody knows yet where the money might come from, if it comes at all.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media