Traffic backups at a busy intersection in Freeland may soon be a thing of the past.

The Island County commissioners this week informally green lighted plans for the installation of right turn lane on Harbor Avenue at the intersection of Highway 525. The current two-lane road and its proximity to the light at Fish Road results in congestion as motorists turning left onto the state route from Harbor Avenue hold up traffic for vehicles waiting to make a right.

“I’m excited we’ll be able to improve the flow of traffic in that intersection,” Island County Commissioner Helen Price Johnson said.

Freeland is a bustling and thriving community, said Price Johnson, and it’s the county’s responsibility to ensure that road infrastructure meets increasing demands.

The proposal, introduced by Island County Public Works Director Bill Oakes, was softly approved during the board’s Wednesday work session. That means additional action, a formal vote, is still required at a future Tuesday meeting of the board.

The board’s clerk said the soonest that vote will occur is March 3.

According to Oakes, the road project has been planned for years. Backups at the intersection have long been a headache for Freeland motorists, and businesses and the chamber of commerce have all requested improvements. This was the “conceptual kick off” for the project, however, and it could be some time before construction is complete.

“I’d imagine we’re talking two years,” Oakes said.

The board’s approval will put the project on the county’s six-year road project list. That opens the door for design and planning steps, and later construction.

Early cost estimates are in the neighborhood of $225,000. A right of way acquisition may not be necessary — the adjacent property is a Whidbey Island Bank branch — but the project involves significant filling and electrical work on a streetlamp control box are factors in the price.

Along with building the right-turn lane, the shoulders along that part of Harbor Avenue will be expanded about 4 feet, Oakes said. The shoulders along the highway are about six feet.

Harbor Avenue is across the highway from Sunny View Village, a new housing complex currently under construction. The development has fueled community concern about pedestrian safety; people worry new residents won’t walk down to the crosswalk at Fish Road to get to the downtown core, but instead cross at Harbor Avenue.

Several months ago, county, state, Sunny View and community residents met to discuss the problem. Whether the state will make changes to the highway is unclear, but Oakes said the Harbor Avenue improvements are unrelated.

“This project has been on my radar long before Sunny View,” Oakes said.