The July, 2009 WSDOT webpage of SR 510 – Yelm Loop called the Yelm Bypass says,
“The purchase of Right of way is under way and will continue through 2009.

Construction of Stage 1 is funded. Design for Stage 1 is underway. This portion of the SR 510 Yelm Loop project is set to go to ad in October 2009.

Stage 2 remains unfunded.”

As reported here previously, for this to happen:

1. The current funding for right-of-way (r-o-w) acquisition and engineering had to have been converted to construction funding for a Bypass to begin.

2. WSDOT had to have implemented the City of Yelm’s request about the possibility of splitting the Bypass project into Phase 1 and 2, which the Legislature did not do. Phase 1 of the Bypass only bypasses Yelm High School and brings traffic back onto Yelm Ave. just east of the High School, hence the name “Yelm High School Bypass”.

We could see construction start on Phase 1 by year’s end, followed by an official opening in 2010 with Bypass traffic then traversing neighborhood streets (Killion & Cullens) with children playing and these streets not designed to handle the traffic load. The bulk of Bypass traffic was never intended to use Killion of Cullens and now will do so because the the 2 Phase split.

Associate City Planner Tami Merriman told the Yelm Planning Commission on June 15 that a Phase One Bypass would terminate at Cullens Rd., and there would be no traffic light at Cullens & Yelm Avenues to handle the traffic. Ms. Merriman stated there could be no light there, as the intersection is too close to Longmire. Yelm Community Development Dept. Director Beck said most of the traffic would use Killion anyway.
I stated that Killion & Cullens were not engineered and designed to handle semi-trucks and heavy traffic – that Killion goes through a residential neighborhood with children and senior assisted-living housing area & Cullens is an unimproved 2-lane street.

People in the know are not going to drive north on Killion to head west on the Bypass and add an additional mile to their journey just to bypass the High School, or vice-versa.

Remember folks, there is no funding for over-three-mile Phase 2 of the Bypass — from Cullens through to the Wal-Mart.