145 miles of roads will get new paint in Tumwater this year

Tumwater is underway to take on a larger city striping project than usual. So exciting things for the appearance of the streets of Tumwater.

Today Tumwater Public Works Committee passed a motion to solicit bids for the 2022 annual striping project. The motion sends the solicitation documents to Tumwater Mayor Debbie Sullivan for her signature.

"This contract will be refreshing all the lines within the city's rights of way," stated Transportation Manager Mary Heather Ames.

Ames related that this year will be a bit different than prior years, as the street striping projects have usually been smaller. Ames goes on to say, "While we have done this sort of project yearly, we haven't been needing to bring it to Public Works Committee and council because we've worked with Thurston County and the dollar amounts were small enough that our purchasing policy didn't require council approval or mayor signature."

The 2022 project includes approximately 145 miles of striping, related Ames, "These are the yellow center lines or the white edge lines that you see running parallel to your car as you drive or parallel to your walking as you walk. 

In a slide of the project, it did state that the project does not include plastic pavement markings. Ames explains further, "These are not the stop bars or the symbols like arrows. We usually use thermoplastics or another type of material to mark those."

Removing and Redoing:

Between 79^th Avenue SE and Arab Drive SE they are also removing and putting back a new configuration, Ames related. Saying further, "We received some concerns from citizens about the about the speed of vehicles on 79^th, and when we went out to investigate, we noticed that (the lanes) are quite wide. As things are built, they get put in the way they get put in. So, we saw this as an opportunity to remove the existing lines and narrow them up to a more standard configuration." The more standard regulation lane width is 11 feet across and shoulders on both sides, she said.

"This will also help with adding some more space on the north side if we have walkers or bike riders who want to be on the north side of the street. There'll be just a little more space to help with the comfort level if that's the way you choose to use transportation.

New Market Street next to city hall will also get some street markings changed. "This will be removing some paint lines to accommodate street parking on the east side of New Market. That's to help out with employee parking because we all want to be in the office and there's a lot of us now."