By MADELYN FAIRBANKS
Published August 1, 2012

First Street-Avenue D update
SNOHOMISH – Drivers traveling through the gateway intersection to downtown have endured the last of the summer construction closures.
The first phase of the First Street-Avenue D intersection project recently finished.
The last piece to the project will be installing traffic signal poles, which are expected to arrive in early December, project engineer Andy Sics said.
The poles will be decorative and will look just like the poles at the intersection of Second Street and Avenue A, Sics said.
Once the poles arrive, contractors working on the project will have 30 days to complete the installation. The entire project should be “100 percent complete by the end of December,” Sics said.
“The (traffic) light is going to make this intersection more efficient,” Sics said.
The rating system used to measure traffic flow deemed the intersection as failing.
  The system is based on delay time a person waits in their car to get through the intersection. An “A” rating is considered good and an “F” is considered bad — “F” rating means a driver waits one minute or more.
Before construction, the intersection at First Street and Avenue D was getting an “F.” The improvements should put the intersection at a “B” rating.
The project was funded mainly by a Transportation Improvement Board grant the city received from the state that covers 85 percent of the cost.
The city paid for the remaining 15 percent with its traffic impact fee fund, Sics said.
Sics said the project’s total cost will be around $750,000, just under the $787,000 figure originally estimated.
Drivers experienced road closures last week while workers finished up the crosswalk across Avenue D, Sics said.
Southbound traffic was closed to the intersection while three-fourths of the crosswalk’s concrete set, allowing only northbound traffic through. The remaining concrete was poured on Friday, July 27, opening both directions to travel.