Starting this spring, Barkley Boulevard will be widened from Howe Place to Woburn Street. The addition of two lanes will improve traffic flow at the Woburn and Barkley intersection and make room for more traffic anticipated with the opening of a new movie 16-screen movie theater opening in fall 2012.
Broadening Barkley Boulevard will help manage the increased flow of traffic due to the new cinema, according to Chris Comeau, the transportation planner for the city of Bellingham. The road improvement will also reduce current clogging of the high traffic street.
“It’s a boulevard, I’d expect it to be wide and fast into the future,” Barkley resident Steven Niedermeyer said in an email.
Construction on Barkley Boulevard will begin in spring and be finalized by June in time for the opening of the new movie theater.
The Barkley Company, which is developing the movie theater in Barkley Village, will fund the road improvement project projected to cost $400,000 in the six-year transportation improvement program for Bellingham.
Improvements aim to fix current traffic concerns
During rush hour, between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. and between 4:30 p.m. and 5 p.m., the traffic on Barkley Boulevard backs up from about half a mile from Woburn Street to Orleans Street. The widening of the section of Barkley Boulevard may help mitigate the eastbound traffic congestion beginning at the intersection with Woburn Street.
“Only time will tell, but we hope it will alleviate some of the problem,” Stowe Talbot, owner of Barkley Company, said.
The west side of the intersection at Woburn Street and Barkley Boulevard only has one lane in each direction while the other streets extending from the intersection have two lanes in each direction.
The Barkley Boulevard widening project was originally adopted to correct the interrupted flow of traffic due to the insufficient amount of lanes on Barkley Boulevard west of Woburn Street. Widening the approximately 160-meter section of Barkley Boulevard will balance the streets converging at the intersection, according to Comeau.
“It definitely bottlenecks [at the intersection] when it goes from two lanes to one lane,” Barkley resident Dan Maldonado said about the traffic jams on Barkley Boulevard.
A new right turn lane will be added in the widened section of Barkley Boulevard. This will reduce traffic congestion that begins at the intersection, according Comeau.
Barkley resident Juan Baldovinos said he doesn’t think the theater traffic will add much to the current traffic problem, but he looks forward to the traffic flowing more smoothly after the road construction is completed.
“I see it as the long term solution to the current issue,” Baldovinos said.
Maldonado thinks the roads surrounding Sunset Square will be more of a problem.
“It’s already nutty over there,” Maldonado said. “That’s how everybody is going to get to the movies.”
“It’s already nutty over there,” Maldonado said. “That’s how everybody is going to get to the movies.”
With moviegoers coming from the freeway to get to Barkley Boulevard, increased traffic on East Sunset Drive may cause more traffic hold ups.
“The Barkley Regal Cinema traffic study and the concurrency evaluation thoroughly considered traffic impacts throughout this portion of the City,” explained Comeau in an email. “Vehicle traffic congestion in and around Barkley Village will increase over time as development continues to occur.”
Construction of theater calls for widening
The new cinema in Barkley Village will bring more traffic to the area, which is part of why the city transportation planner is requiring the Barkley Company to do road improvements.
“The development that’s triggering this is the movie theater,” Ravyn Whitewolf, the engineering manager for the Public Works Department, said.
Whenever a new development is proposed, Comeau does concurrency evaluations to determine if improvements are needed. Concurrency evaluations essentially assess the impact of traffic and ensure that sufficient transportation infrastructure is available for new developments.
“Anytime we do a project out here, of any size, the city requires us to do a future traffic survey to figure out the projected impacts,” Talbot explained.
Since the current infrastructure cannot handle a significant increase in traffic the road widening was required in order for the Barkley Company to proceed with the development of the movie theater.
New cinema adds to urban village
Although some Barkley residents were not aware of the plans to develop a movie theater when they moved to the area, they have embraced the changes.
“I believe the theatre lot was originally zoned for light industrial so I’m thankful they’re putting in a theatre and retail verses other uses,” Niedermeyer said in an email.
Joanna Wiebe moved to Barkley four years ago with her husband, and although they didn’t know about the theater they were cognizant of the amenities Barkley Village would bring.
“That’s one of the reasons why we picked this area,” Wiebe said. “We really like the urban village idea a lot.”
She is pleased that her grocery, medical and some retail needs can be fulfilled in one place in walking distance from her house on Sussex Drive. Now that there will be a movie theater both Niedermeyer and Wiebe plan on seeing movies there in the future.
“People sense that Bellingham is long overdue for a first class cinema experience,” Talbot said.
“We go to the movies a lot,” said Juan Baldovinos, a Barkley resident. “What else is there to do in Bellingham really?”
There will be three other buildings for retail space in the 51-acre area where the new theater is being built.
There will be three other buildings for retail space in the 51-acre area where the new theater is being built.
Talbot said that in long-term developments they expect to reclaim some of the parking lot with more retail space and build a parking garage.
The theater should only significantly affect traffic on the weekend, but the road improvement will reduce traffic congestion on weekdays when people drive home from work.
“Friday will be a whole different story,” Baldovinos, said with a smile. “Friday is movie night.”
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