The city of Kirkland unveiled the beginnings of a plan to revamp a dangerous section of Juanita Drive on March 23 at Finn Hill Middle School.

The stretch runs between Juanita Village and Big Finn Hill Park, and was part of a large annexation by the city of Kirkland in 2011.

The city spent two years studying the corridor, and is in the design phase of exactly what the finished project might look like.

The initial phase of the project, called Juanita Drive Quick Wins, involves a handful of relatively simple safety improvements focused on cyclist and pedestrian traffic.

“The end game is either a sidewalk or a pathway that is separated from the roadway, up and down the entire stretch,” said Jon Pascal, a leader in the Finn Hill neighborhood and part of the Juanita Drive advisory group. “We’d have turn pockets at some of the key intersections and some of the blind and sharp corners moved out, so to speak.”

The list of improvements — which ranges from flashing beacons and adding lighting to restructuring entire interactions — is extensive, with several of the 32 options costing in the millions of dollars. The city doesn’t necessarily have the money to jump into a massive capital improvements project, but the corridor can’t wait, either.

Between 2009 and 2012, there were 142 vehicle collisions on the corridor. Five collisions resulted in fatalities, including two deaths in 2011. The study identified several “hot spots,” including sections on either side of Juanita Beach Park, that combined for 29 collisions in four years.

The study identified several projects the city could complete quickly and relatively cheaply with just over $1.2 million in federal highway grants and additional money from the Washington Department of Transportation.

The $1.35 million Quick Wins phase carries several key features.

Along the northbound, or “uphill” side of the road, the city plans to add a buffer between the vehicle and bicycle lanes. On most stretches, the buffer zone would simply be paint, marked with a double white line and cross-hatching, similar to markings on Northeast 141st street. In other more-dangerous sections, the buffer might include a rumble strip or plastic stanchions, depending on how the final design works out.

The project also calls for installing Rapid Flashing Beacons on three intersections: at Northeast 93rd Avenue, along the trail at Big Finn Hill Park and at Northeast 143rd street.

The project would upgrade street lighting at Northeast 122nd Place, add centerline rumble between driving lanes throughout the corridor, add a left turn refuge pocket at Northeast 138th Place and make other pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements.

The project is still in the design phase, with design completion set for late June or early July. Once the design is complete, the city will begin the bidding process.

“My optimistic assumption is that we could hit the ground in July and start doing construction… in August,” said Aaron McDonald with the Kirkland Public Works department. “One of the things we committed to was getting that rapid flashing beacon at Finn Hill Park constructed this year, so I’m bringing that one to the forefront and I am going to make that one of the orders of business for the contractor.”

McDonald said some improvements, especially those dependent on good weather like painting, could be delayed until next spring.

Many of the larger projects are somewhat further down the line. The overall plan is based on adding four to seven feet of pavement throughout the corridor, particularly on the tight, narrow southern sections, to accommodate planned additions.

The plan does not call for additional vehicle lanes, but rather focuses on safety for non-vehicle travelers and improves key intersections. Additional lighting, reworked roadway cross sections and prohibition of on-street parking are also features in the plan.

In several locations, the city plans to add left turn and refuge lanes, hoping to address the most common collision type: rear-end collisions, which made up 44 percent of collisions in the 2009-12 study.

The entire Juanita Drive project is expected to cost between $19-$25 million.

“We have a few people that are constantly looking at grant programs coming up,” McDonald said. “Kirkland’s pretty successful in getting grant money, and I fully expect over the next five to seven, eight to 10 years that we will acquire a significant amount of funding to implement a large portion of the continued improvements here on Juanita Drive.”