Public services director highlights upcoming local road projects to council, school

During the first joint meeting in seven years between Yelm Community Schools and the City of Yelm on Tuesday, May 5, Cody Colt, Yelm public services director, highlighted some of the area’s upcoming transportation projects and how they will affect the city and schools.
Colt said he’s often faced with the question about what the City of Yelm is doing about the traffic situation. As a longtime resident, he said that everyone in town hates the traffic and clarified it’s not something that the city particularly enjoys either.

“One of the main projects happening right now is at 507 — what used to be Five Corners — and Bald Hill, and Morris Road and Bald Hill,” Colt said. “This project is particularly impactful. It’s one of our chokepoints in the city. If you’ve ever been to Prairie Elementary when school gets out, there’s a line of cars all the way from Morris Road back. People can’t get out of it.”

From start to finish, Colt said those particular projects will take 16 months to complete. He doesn’t project any impact on school bus routes or local traffic as the road will never be fully closed.

“If anything, it will help because there will be traffic control there,” Colt said. “Instead of waiting for three hours to turn left on Bald Hill road, there will be traffic control when that construction is happening. There will be one lane. Most of the construction will happen over the summer, and it shouldn’t impact school buses or traffic. It’s a nice project.”

Colt also highlighted the Rhoton Road reconstruction project. The street itself is near Yelm Middle School and will serve as one of the main access points to downtown once the Yelm Loop is completed.

Construction for the Rhoton Road reconstruction project will begin this summer.

“People will be turning on to Rhoton Road as their main access to the city center,” Colt said. “What the city decided to do is upgrade this road ahead of time. That road reconstruction next year will lighten the road, add a 10-foot shared use path that will connect to the trail, and we’ll add sidewalks and realign the intersection at NP Road.”

Colt said this project is especially important as Yelm Middle School has a lot of walking students, and there’s currently no safe way for some of the district’s students to trek to the school due to a lack of sidewalks.

Rhoton Road itself will never be fully closed during construction, but Colt specified that there will be time periods where only local traffic or bus traffic can pass through.

Colt noted that the current city administration and council is really focused on sidewalk connectivity to assist students who desire to walk to their school. He highlighted several projects that emphasize that focus.

“Right now, we’re currently under design for Middle Road and Railway, which will connect those new developments coming down Mill Road to Fort Stevens Elementary,” Colt said. “Right now, you have a new development, Shelm Meadows, just built. We have no walking paths to Fort Stevens, and they’re only a quarter mile from Fort Stevens.”

Colt claimed the city is actively designing the plans to connect those back streets. He’s hoping to see those projects go to construction in the summer or fall.

“We’re committed to making that connection from Clark Road over to Mill Pond Elementary. You have several kids in those developments that can’t currently walk to Mill Pond or RMS that would then be able to walk to RMS and Mill Pond. We’re working on those connectivities right now.”

He noted there were several interior roadways not mentioned, including a Vancil Road to Morris Road connecting street.

“If you’ve been down Morris Road and try to go to Prairie Elementary, it can be an absolute nightmare,” Colt said. “Vancil Road, which is behind Safeway, will connect to Morris Road. We expect that in the next three years.”

Additionally, Colt claimed another potential connecting street could be coming from Vancil Road to Clark Road.

“You’ll have an access driving path from Clark Road to Vancil Road to Morris Road, which is huge,” Colt said. “You’ll be able to actually cut through and go to the back of Clark Road. It will mostly be Yelm traffic back there — which is good — that way we can get it off the main road.”

As far as city growth goes, Colt noted there 1,600 dwelling units in the queue for Yelm right now. He said they could, theoretically, go to development tomorrow, but noted it would most likely be over the next five to 10 years.

“That’s not going to happen because a lot of these are the same builder and they’re just building and lining projects up ahead of time,” Colt said. “We expect this to be a five-to 10-year outlook with three to four more projects being added every year.”

Mayor Joe DePinto said a lot of people ask him why Yelm can’t stop development, or how the city can prevent development from taking place. Colt responded, saying if Yelm stopped being such an awesome town then people would stop moving here.

“It’s against the law, unless there’s an emergency,” Colt said. “A lot of times people say you can put a moratorium on growth until you figure this out. From an infrastructure standpoint, we’ve already got it all lined up. We got our water rights. We built a water tower. The sewer plant has been upgraded. We have the loop coming in. People are doing traffic studies. We’re building these side roads. All the things you could say are an emergency, we can’t just because we are so well prepared for everything.

“Growth is paying for the things you see in Yelm,” he continued. “The park, the splashpad, the stage, the new veterans memorial park — growth paid for that. All of that is paid for by growth. Without growth, you have to find some other way to find money and that becomes a lot more difficult.”