What’s going on with the new speed humps in Canyon Lakes? Half had to be removed
Canyon Lakes Drive is a large semi-circular road, but some drivers are treating it like a race track.
That’s created dangerous conditions for the people who live and walk along the road, so the property owners association decided to do something about it.
They went about the process the correct way, but it was only after installing speed humps that they hit some unexpected snags.
The speed limit on the road is 25 mph, but Kennewick Public Works Director Cary Roe recently told the city council that the average speed of drivers is about 10 mph higher, and they’ve got a significant number of drivers doing more than double the limit.
Canyon Lakes POA president Jerry Campbell told the Herald that thanks to speed limit signs with radars showing the speed of drivers, they’ve been able to track drivers doing in excess of 70 mph on the northern stretch of Canyon Lakes Drive.
Kennewick says about 5,000 vehicles each day drive through the neighborhood — and most are speeding.
Many are using Canyon Lakes as a shortcut from Highway 395 to South Ely Street and neighborhoods beyond, say city officials.
But a permit for speed humps to slow them down was apparently issued in error and now the city will likely bear some of the cost to fix the problem.
Dangerous conditions
“You have to envision you’re backing out of your driveway, your child is strapped in the back seat and you back out and somebody comes around the bend so fast at 70 mph and plows into you,” Campbell said. “That’s extreme, but even at 40 to 50 mph, which is more common, people just don’t have the time to respond to something like that.”
The property owners association sent out a survey in 2022, and about 9 out of 10 people who responded said that slowing down speeders should be the POA’s top priority. The higher end neighborhood has about 1,000 residents.
Campbell said the POA did their due diligence, checked with their legal counsel and then began to form an action plan.
After taking a look at what steps could be done to help make the roadway safer, the POA approached the city about adding speed humps. Speed humps are similar to speed bumps, but are wider and lower. They force traffic to slow, rather than nearly come to a stop.
“If you live in Canyon Lakes you’ll know there’s a problem,” Campbell said. “I don’t like speed humps and I don’t think anyone likes them, but they’re certainly effective. They’re very effective, but not popular.”
The city reviewed the plans and couldn’t find code to guide them so issued a one-time permit to add 12 speed humps along Canyon Lakes Drive.
Campbell said they’ve had some questions from residents as to whether they had the authority to do so, but their legal counsel believes the action taken was within the association board’s purview.
“In our case, we went to the city a number of years ago and started talking to them about, ‘How do we get people to slow down?’” Campbell said. “We were told the city didn’t have a policy in place.”
After receiving the permit, six humps were installed on the north section of the roadway and six to the south. The POA put up $75,000 of its own money to pay for them.
“On the north side there’s 35 to 38 homes that directly back onto Canyon Lakes Drive, that was one of our priority areas to slow people down,” Campbell said. “On the south side there’s a number of cars that come off the hill, and there’s a city park right there.”
The sign on the south side of the loop at 40th Place and Canyon Lakes Drive has collected multiple entries of drivers going more than 72 mph.
More than 175,000 cars were recorded passing by that sign between September and November of 2022, with 70% going over the speed limit, according to the POA’s data from the signs. At least 18 drivers were going faster than 63 mph in that period, and more than 100 were over 50 mph.
Another sign on the northeast portion of the loop recorded at least 28 cars traveling at double the speed limit or higher. Six of those cars were speeding at more than 60 mph.
Permitting issues
Only the northern half of the speed humps are still in place. That’s because two things happened that were out of the POA’s control.
The first major issue that came up was that the city of Kennewick realized they had a code in place, it was just buried in rarely used administrative codes, rather than the municipal code. Roe said public works employees began reviewing the speed humps based on the code they found.
A device used to measure the height and curvature of speed humps revealed the second major issue. The six along the south side of the loop were too high with too steep of a hump.
Roe and the POA then contacted the contractor who installed them and tried to see if they could smooth them out enough to get them to conform to city standards.
Unfortunately, the contractor wasn’t able to get them into compliance, so the south-side speed humps had to be ripped out earlier this month, and it’s too late in the year to reinstall them.
There are issues with the humps on the north side, but to a much smaller degree. Some may be too close to curves in the road or improperly spaced, but they conform to height and curvature standards.
Roe agrees that there’s a problem with speeding in Canyon Lakes.
He stressed to council members at a recent workshop meeting that this wasn’t just a case of an owners association wanting special treatment. It’s a surge in traffic from people who don’t live directly in that neighborhood.
He asked the council to move the speed humps administrative code into the municipal code where it would be easier for residents and employees to find, to update the code if the council deems necessary and to try and help offset costs for the POA due to the mistakes in the permitting process.
Roe said he’s been working with the contractor and POA and has been able to negotiate the costs of reinstalling the southern speed humps and adjusting the north side humps to bring them all into compliance. If the council agrees, it’ll cost about $25,000.
He also asked the council to consider whether they want to look into a broader “traffic calming” policy for the city that would help offset costs to neighborhoods that are having speed issues, but don’t have the means to pay for installing humps. That program would likely be based on a similar one in Richland.
“Mistakes were made, we did our best as a community to follow everything that was required. I was surprised when we got a letter saying the permit was issued in error,” Campbell said. “We all learned from the situation and we can move forward. We’ll have more clear direction once the (city’s) process is in.”
Depending on the council’s action, which will likely be taken in December, the southern portion of the humps could be replaced in the spring, and some may be removed or shifted on the northern end.
This story was originally published November 27, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
