PORT ANGELES — Drivers who cross the centerline of U.S. Highway 101 soon will be in for a bumpy ride.
State Department of Transportation crews this spring will install rumble strips along 22 miles of the 32-mile Driving 101 Traffic Safety Project corridor, just one of several continuing efforts of project organizers to boost highway safety and reduce collisions.
Motorists will also see more left-turn lanes, law enforcement officers using lidar (laser radar), liquor enforcement, plus a highway billboard, Web site and advertisements about the project.
“We can always go out and write more tickets, but that is not the solution,” Washington State Patrol Lt. Clint Casebolt said Tuesday.
“Our goal is to save lives.”
The project’s steering committee met for two hours at the Clallam County Courthouse on Tuesday morning to review what’s happening within the highway corridor, and what comes next.
Campaigned launched
It was the group’s first meeting since the two-year campaign was launched Dec. 15 at an emotional ceremony that included a tribute to those who died on North Olympic Peninsula roads and highways since 2000.
The project, focusing on the section of Highway 101 from Laird’s Corner to the Clallam-Jefferson county line at Diamond Point Road, was developed under the auspices of the state Traffic Safety Commission in response to an unusually high rate of collisions on North Olympic Peninsula roads last year.