After a major traffic backup throughout town on the morning of July 19, Yelm’s Police Chief Rob Carlson described the traffic situation as a “state of emergency” and discussed possible solutions at a July 25 Yelm City Council meeting.
During the meeting, Carlson said the traffic backup was caused to a jack-knifed semi truck, which partially blocked Interstate 5 northbound lanes. He added that the traffic choke-point was at state Route 702 in McKenna, which led to traffic backing up into Yelm. He later added that when I-5 southbound is obstructed, the choke point of traffic changes to First Street in Yelm.
“We normally get alerts from WSDOT on a regular basis when something happens on I-5 [that could] cripple our city with traffic issues like it has in the past,” Carlson said. “That particular day, we got a message from WSDOT that a jack-knifed semi truck in northbound lanes was partially blocking. But due to that incident and multiple other accidents that took place after, is what started to gather all of the traffic issues in our town. It grew to the point to where once we’re gridlocked, it’s difficult for us to get the traffic moving.”
Carlson said that partially-blocking incidents “generally” don’t generate much concern, but a series of traffic accidents in Yelm and surrounding areas led to the traffic jam that left some residents scrambling to work on time.
After a train derailment in December 2017, Yelm experienced a multi-day gridlock. Carlson noted that after this derailment, representatives from the City of Yelm gathered with WSDOT, Washington State Patrol and Thurston County representatives to come up with a traffic management plan.
“One thing about that particular plan is that it works for something like a known, long-term traffic issue, and we have about an hour timeframe before it starts to back up on us,” Carlson said. “But because of signage, cost of signage, it was put on the back burner, but we’re going to put that in the forefront again and try to get that going.”
One solution Carlson thinks might work in Yelm is working with Thurston County Emergency Management.
“With traffic the way it is, and when it does that, we’re in a state of emergency in Yelm,” Carlson said. “It’s not just our problem to fix. Depending on the blockage, we’re in the middle of a larger picture that we’re trying to fix, and it’s difficult for us to get our traffic to go northbound when we’re dealing with agencies strained with calls.”
He added that emergency management would provide resources and the ability to reach out to other available agencies to help alleviate traffic choke points. Thurston County Emergency Management could also provide residents with messages and alerts related to traffic.
Carlson said working with Thurston County Emergency Services would be a “short-term fix” as he believes construction of a Vail Road round-about, slated for 2026, will alleviate some of the issues.
“I want everyone to understand that when traffic gets like that, we just don’t sit on our hands and think there’s nothing we can do,” Carlson said. “We really do try to make that move. It can strain on us as a department, as a city. We can’t put officers at the intersections to flag them for 25 feet to the next car because there’s nowhere to go.”
Following Carlson’s comments, Councilor Joshua Crossman asked Mayor Joe DePinto if the City can lobby to WSDOT to construct another bridge over the Nisqually River to alleviate traffic.
DePinto said, during prior discussions with different city leadership, neither WSDOT nor city officials expressed interest in building another bridge. DePinto said, however, the possibility of constructing another bridge could be discussed at a later date.
Cody Colt, Yelm’s Public Works director, noted that when building another bridge over the Nisqually River was first discussed, the issue at hand was that the traffic choke point did not change.
