Renton Traffic: New SR 167 Ramp Signals Turn On Next Week

RENTON, WA — Starting next week, drivers on State Route 167 will notice new signals leading into the northbound Interstate 405 interchange, as part of a new effort to increase safety and cut down on crashes during heavy traffic. The new ramp meters will turn on Tuesday, July 27.

Traffic flowing onto the ramp will be metered between 6 a.m. and noon, then intermittently during afternoon periods when congestion is high, officials said. The system utilizes an "adaptive freeway metering system" that activates and adjusts timing based on conditions and can also be altered manually by traffic engineers as needed.

According to the Washington State Department of Transportation, more than half of crashes in the area over the last five years happen where SR 167 merges onto Interstate 405. WSDOT said ramp meters are a proven safety tool that prevents vehicles from merging in a tight group, which adds to stop-and-go traffic and frequently leads to crashes.

WSDOT pointed to several benefits for adjusting traffic flow:

• Ramp meters can improve safety by allowing one vehicle at a time to merge onto the interstate, reducing the severity and number of collisions due to merging traffic.
• Gaps between merging vehicles will make the merge easier for drivers and reduce the risk of collisions.
• Ramp meters are designed to help evenly pace vehicles merging onto the freeway, providing consistent gaps between vehicles, rather than multiple vehicles flooding onto the highway at once.
• Ramp meters create a steadier flow of traffic onto the highway and reduces travel times.
• The SR 167 ramp meter can help alleviate and prevent free-flowing vehicles from hitting a dead-stop at the I-405 merge point.
• HOV and transit traffic will be able to use the I-405 Direct Connector that connects SR 167 to I-405 via the leftmost travel lane. With its completion in 2019, the Direct Connector siphons off traffic (HOV, transit, emergency vehicles) that would have been previously using the on-ramp.