The King County Road Services Division is hosting an open house to preview its plans to make safety improvements next summer on 100th Avenue Northeast in the North Juanita area. The open house will be held from 6-8 p.m. Nov. 3 at Juanita Elementary School, 9635 N.E. 132nd St., Kirkland.

The county’s project focuses on the stretch of roadway between Northeast 132nd Street and Northeast 138th Place. This segment has been identified as a high-accident road segment since 1996, due to frequent collisions between vehicles on 100th Avenue Northeast and vehicles entering or exiting driveways. The Road Services Division previously installed right-turn-only signs on problem driveways in an effort to reduce accidents, but it did not significantly reduce the collisions.

The project scheduled for next summer will include constructing a combination of medians and left-turn pockets to replace the existing two-way left-turn lane. The goal is to reduce driveway collisions, while allowing vehicle access into and out of the businesses along 100th Avenue. It will be funded by a $500,000 grant from the High Risk Rural Roads Program.

This segment of road currently falls within unincorporated King County, but will be annexed to Kirkland in June 2011. The county obtained the funding for the project prior to the annexation vote and will complete the work.

Division staff will be available at the open house to answer questions. For more information, contact Community Relations Planner Marnie McGrath at 206-684-1142, or e-mail: marnie.mcgrath@kingcounty.gov.