Twenty-five minutes. That’s the longest Donna and Len Wright have had to wait to get out of their driveway. Twenty-five minutes is their record, but it’s not far off their typical wait since Duvall Avenue Northeast in the Renton Highlands was closed last June for a year-long widening and upgrade project.

The Wrights live on Union Avenue Northeast, a street that has become an unofficial detour during Duvall’s construction. Interstate 405 is the official detour. Northeast Sunset Boulevard is also a suggested detour route. Duvall is closed north of Sunset Boulevard Northeast to Northeast 95th Way.

“It’s almost funny,” Wright says of her driveway-exit troubles. “It’s just kind of you have to plan when you come out.”

Almost funny, but not quite. Wright wouldn’t mind the occasional wait, but is weary of the constant stream of cars speeding past her house.

“Not once has someone let me out since this whole thing started,” Wright says.

“It’s like an invasion … detour invasions,” she adds.

The invasion starts, slowly, when Len Wright leaves for his Everett job at 4:30 or 5 a.m. Donna watches from the door. “Isn’t that a good spot?” she asks him. “Go!”

Len never had to wait before the detour. By 6:30 a.m., there’s “car after car in this direction,” Donna says.

Then there’s the school rush. After dropping her daughter Alauna, 13, at Renton Christian School on Maple Valley Highway at about 8 a.m., Donna usually kills time, driving around or grocery shopping. There’s no getting to her house at that hour. The former manager of Renton Civic Theater, Donna now cares

for her elderly mother. Donna picks up Alauna from school at about 2:30 p.m., before the worst traffic starts, around 5:30 p.m.

At that time Donna says “people start heading down this road, one right after the other, right after the other.”

On Union, traffic flows north in the morning and south in the afternoon.

“Then on the weekends they just go all the time,” Donna says.

The traffic frenzy is on display on a recent weeknight at her house. Donna stands in her short driveway, narrating the scene.

“Here’s a good lump of them,” she says, as a line of cars passes by in the right lane. “There’s just no space in between.”

The cars are going too fast to muscle in.

“See, that’s not 30 mph,” Donna says, as a white SUV zooms by.

She later points out a space, and admits that the traffic light at the bottom of the hill keeps traffic moving.

But it’s not so much the traffic that bothers Donna. It’s the unwillingness of people to let cars in. Not that she believes the passers-by are intentionally rude.

“No one knows they’re the 120th car,” she says.

She and Len have counted 61 cars that drove by without letting them in.

“I don’t think they’re aware people live on this road and are trying to get out,” she says. “They’re just relentless. They don’t stop or slow down.”

Donna has considered making a sign to make people aware. “Let us out! Let us out!” it would read. She’s also considered making flags to guide guests from her driveway, particularly her elderly mother. Donna has taken to driving her mother’s truck out of the driveway for her. She uses her lawn for three-point turns.

The Duvall project is part of Bob Hanson’s job as the city’s transportation design supervisor. He has been monitoring traffic on streets surrounding the closure. He’s never seen or heard of any delay close to Donna’s 25 minutes. Maybe 25 seconds, he says.

“People don’t have to wait long to get onto the street; at least I haven’t heard it,” Hanson says.

Still, Hanson says studies show Union’s traffic has doubled since Duvall closed.

He’s also heard complaints from people living around the closure. Complaints of traffic delays, and complaints of speeding.

The city has conducted speed studies and increased police patrols on Union and other nearby streets. Speeding is a problem in the 20-mph school zone by Sierra Heights Elementary. But elsewhere, Hanson says “speeding just simply hasn’t materialized.”

The city has responded to complaints by adjusting the timing of the stoplight on Union and Northeast Sunset Boulevard and adding a center turn lane on Union near Sierra Heights.

Hanson hasn’t had many complaints from people and businesses on Duvall.

But Don Joss, owner of DJ’s Sports Cards on Duvall, says the street closure has “affected my store traffic, definitely.” Drop-ins and Newcastle customers have decreased since the closure.

Still, Joss says the closure has not been as bad as he expected. The specialty nature of DJ’s ensure customers find a way to his store.

The Duvall closure is worse than Donna Wright expected. She didn’t realize her street would be a detour route.

“I didn’t realize they would come down our street,” she says. “If I had, I would have gone to a town meeting and put my hand up and said, ‘Excuse me, what are you going to do with us poor folks?’”

Those “poor folks” should be happier once the Duvall project finishes, giving space to the area’s traffic.

The $15-million Duvall project will add five lanes, plus bicycle lanes and sidewalks, curbs and gutters to Duvall, and also convert overhead power lines to underground lines. The project is expected to finish in July or August. Duvall will open in July.

Hanson says the project is going smoothly. While he acknowledges traffic troubles caused by the closure, he says the price of gas has kept traffic down. He says much of the area traffic has likely rerouted to I-405, as planned.

“The backups when Duvall was open are much greater than we’ve seen when Duvall is closed,” he says.

Meanwhile, Donna Wright is counting down the days until Duvall reopens and she can get out of her driveway again. Until then, she’s hoping just one person will let her out.

“If one person would do it, pay it forward, the next person would do it,” she says. “It just takes one car.”

Updates

Updates for the Duvall Avenue Northeast widening project are available online at duvall.rentonwa.gov. For maps, additional information on detour routes and to find out more about Renton’s major construction and transportation projects, go to rentonwa.gov.