August 26th, 2020

The Honorable Maria Cantwell
United States Senate
511 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

From: Snohomish County US-2 Mayors
RE: US-2 Capacity Concerns

Dear Senator Cantwell,
It is critical that leaders in our state and national capitols take seriously the needs for improvements to
US Highway 2 (US-2). The weekend of July 24th-26th demonstrated the existing and growing crisis facing
communities along this federal highway.
Because of lanes closures and 12 mile backups on I-90, the preferred cross-state route, US-2 became the
alternate route for thousands of travelers over the weekend. The result was significantly more traffic on
the highway, local county roads, local city roads, and neighborhood roads as many travelers from the
west side of the state tried to funnel through an inadequate road system to reach their destinations.
We faced unprecedented levels of congestion both directions especially through the communities of
Monroe, Sultan, and Gold Bar, and Index. Residents could not get where they needed to go and traffic,
which is often relegated to Friday and Sunday afternoons, took over our communities for the better part
of a week.
In March, the mayors of Lake Stevens, Monroe, Snohomish, Sultan, and Gold Bar traveled to Washington
D.C. and met with our federal representatives urging them to make US-2 a priority in transportation
funding moving forward. On February 5th, residents, business owners, and local elected officials traveled
to Olympia to share the same message.
We write to you to continue to share our story and encourage your ongoing efforts to identify funding
and project prioritization for critical US-2 infrastructure. Moving forward, we hope to supplement these
conversations with examples such as those we have shared in this letter as we work toward solutions
with you.
Please do not hesitate in reaching out to any of us with any questions you might have.
Sincerely,
(See next page for signatures)

 Russell Wiita
Mayor
City of Sultan

Geoffrey Thomas
Mayor
City of Monroe

Bill Clem
Mayor
City of Gold Bar

John T. Kartak
Mayor
City of Snohomish

Brett Gailey
Mayor
City of Lake Stevens

Sam Low
Councilmember
Snohomish County Council

CC: Washington State Governor Jay Inslee
US Senator Patty Murray
US Senator Maria Cantwell
Congresswoman Suzan Delbene – WA CD 1
Congressman Rick Larsen – WA CD 2
State Senator Steve Hobbs – LD 44
State Senator Keith Wagoner – LD 39
State Representative John Lovick – LD 44
State Representative Jared Mead – LD 44
State Representative Carolyn Eslick – LD 39
State Representative Robert Sutherland LD 39