Icicle Road safety improvements gain traction

A small group of Icicle Valley residents is working hard with Chelan County Public Works to bring about safety improvements that address speeding and other safety concerns on the Icicle Road, including a narrow bridge over the Wenatchee River. The group is also raising funds for safety improvements.

According to the group, pedestrians on the bridge navigate a narrow 10-inch high raised concrete walkway, which tapers to no shoulder at either end of the bridge. The guardrail is 36 inches tall creating exposure to the river below. The walkway is unusable in winter when piled with snow and ice from plowing, and in summer the area is congested with recreationists accessing the river for tubing and swimming. The roadway on the bridge basically has no shoulder, exposing cyclists and baby strollers to traffic as they cross the bridge.

Icicle resident MaryCarol Nelson, who initiated organizing her neighbors, has observed numerous close calls and even an accident on the Icicle Road. One day early this spring Nelson was driving to town on the Icicle Road. As she approached the bridge over the Wenatchee River, a rolled-over vehicle was blocking both lanes, barring further access. Emergency vehicles had not yet arrived on the scene, and another driver had taken charge to turn vehicles around. “I have often seen near misses on this bridge, whether I am walking, riding my bike, or driving my car,” says Nelson. “The entry to the bridge is a blind curve at both ends. There isn’t a legal sidewalk or paved shoulder for bikes and pedestrians, forcing bikes and pedestrians to interface with speeding cars.”

“Just the other day I was driving to town,” says Nelson. “Ahead of me on the bridge was a little girl, riding just as fast as she could pump the pedals on her bicycle. You could tell her parents had told her to get across the bridge as quickly as possible, but her bike was wobbling. I slowed way down to let her get across safely by keeping the other cars behind me.”

But safety on the bridge isn’t the only neighborhood concern. With increasing home starts, traffic to Sleeping Lady Mountain Resort, and recreational access to national forest, longtime residents report that the amount of traffic and speeding on the Icicle Road has climbed steadily over the years. Icicle residents Diane Norman and her husband Ray even installed their own traffic counter. “During peak use times, like weekends, we get over 400 vehicles per hour,” Norman says. “We live on a curve. Sometimes I turn out of my driveway when no cars are coming, and as soon as I look in my rearview mirror a speeding car is right on my tail.”

Because of Nelson’s observations and concerns, she started contacting neighbors door-to-door, which quickly led to the formation of Icicle Road Concerned Citizens and several strategy meetings. “We identified a list of possible solutions,” says Nelson, “including raising the railing height, wider aprons on all four approaches, and making a wider sidewalk on the south side only, with pedestrian crossings to access a sidewalk. Most of our solutions were prohibitively expensive.”

Josh Patrick, Assistant Public Works Director, represented Chelan County at the meetings. “Chelan County doesn’t have a funding source for safety projects like this,” Patrick says. “The county roads budget is directed at preservation of the roads, and we can barely keep up with that.” Patrick recommended a more affordable option, the installation of Evolis Radar Speed Signs at either end of the bridge. “The Evolis Radar Speed Signs have been used effectively to slow drivers down in Entiat,” Patrick says. “It seems it would also be helpful to place signs like these on either ends of the busiest area along Icicle Road,” suggests one of the members at a recent meeting. 

Icicle Road Concerned Citizens set up an account at Cashmere Valley Bank and began raising the $7,000 needed to purchase two signs. “We have only been able to raise a little more than half of the amount needed,” says MaryCarol Nelson. “If all the locals and businesses that used the road pitched in with a small donation, we could meet our goal and have a safer situation.”

Chelan County completed a traffic study, and the sheriff’s office is stepping up speed enforcement. Group members gathered their own data. One committee member used county records and field reconnaissance to tally a total of 366 homes off of the Icicle Road from Highway 2 to the Bridge Creek Campground. In addition, there are over 200 lodging rooms or condos, and over 100 RV park campsites.

And then there is the National Forest. The popular Icicle drainage supports 6 campgrounds, 9 trailheads, and countless dispersed campers, climbers, and other recreationists, all adding to the traffic volume and congestion. Icicle resident Shannon Carlson Tait says, “the sheriff’s deputies tell us that about forty percent of the speeders are locals, and sixty percent are tourists.”

Kevin Farrell, who also lives with his family on the Icicle Road, laments that the bridge is not safe enough for his children to ride bikes to school. “My kids are at an age where they are capable of riding bikes to school,” says Farrell. “We have tried riding across the bridge with them several times, and every time there’s been a close call with a vehicle. The wide shoulders that lead up to the bridge don’t clue drivers that they are approaching a narrow bridge, and most of them are driving at least 40 miles per hour. The sidewalks aren’t really sidewalks. There is not enough room to walk and push a bike. The only way to go across the bridge on a bike is to be mixed in with traffic. There is no safe way to cross the bridge on a bike.”

Some neighbors have put up their own signing, calling for reducing speeds and watching for deer. Shannon Carlson Tait lives between Prowell Street and Sleeping Lady. “We watch the vehicles speed by our home all day long,” says Tait, “with many drivers doing well over 35 miles per hour and many up to 60 miles per hour. We have spoken with the local sheriff’s deputies several times. They have even ticketed cars doing up to 80 miles per hour. The vehicles pick up speed at Prowell Street for the straight stretch to Sleeping Lady Resort.”

Tait shared that her husband made a sign saying “please slow down” and sat at the entrance to their driveway in a lawn chair. “Didn’t work. They sped right past him,” Tait says. Residents on the East Leavenworth Road report a comparable speeding problem, with a recent social media post facetiously advertising the road as a drag strip.

Nelson, who lives close to the Icicle bridge, says “you can hear vehicles flooring it even as they come off the bridge. It’s just awful. The bridge project gave us a place to start doing something tangible.”