After some seeming confusion and concerns over what funds are or eventually might be available for the project, Kenmore City Council approved just over $2 million in improvements to the intersection of Northeast 181st Street and 61st Avenue Northeast.

With one council member absent, the Sept. 27 vote was 4-2 in favor of the project, which would minimally place a traffic signal and left-turn pockets at 181st Street and some curbs along 61st Avenue.

To make the work feasible, Kenmore needs to acquire right-of-ways from three different owners, including King County and the Jack in the Box restaurant near the targeted intersection.

Worried about funding for the project, Mayor David Baker was joined by Deputy Mayor Milton Curtis in voting against the work. Baker said he couldn’t justify spending money the city might not have.

In somewhat of a surprise, after a failed attempt to table authorizing legislation, Councilman John Hendrickson voted for the revamping of the intersection. He expressed a hope that council would act more responsibly regarding spending as it takes up its next budget beginning Oct. 4.

Regarding the intersection, the biggest funding questions surround $600,000 in potential federal dollars.

In June, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray earmarked the money in a federal appropriations bill that has yet to be approved by the full senate. Local officials said that may not happen until after the November elections, sometime next year or, potentially, not at all.

According to Murray’s office, the project is designed to help move traffic along State Route 522 by improving traffic flow on the north and south approaches to the roadway at 61st Avenue.

“Traffic safety will be improved through the realignment of the northbound intersection approach and improving the traffic signal,” Murray’s office said in a press release.

The safety issues Murray referred to seemed to be on the minds of Kenmore council members who supported moving the work forward.

City engineer Rob Loewen presented officials with four alternatives for the intersection. Council members Laurie Sperry and Bob Hensel both favored a more aggressive alternative than that adopted, one that includes road widenings and additional turn lanes. Total cost was just over $5 million. But council eventually drifted toward the less expensive alternative.

Several local officials said Kenmore may be in line for unspecified state transportation improvement dollars. It was not clear when that money might appear.

But in answer to a question from Sperry, Loewen said there is no reason the city couldn’t authorize further work if more money became available.

In designing the project, Loewen said he is sticking with what he thought was council’s desire to have the work completed by the end of 2011.

“I’m willing to change our timeline rather than spend money we don’t have,” Curtis said.

Apparently, the rest of council didn’t entirely agree.

As it stands now, Loewen said he would launch design work and begin the process of obtaining the needed right-of-ways still with the idea of having the project completed next year.

Eventually, the intersection work will tie into planned major improvements of 522.

As most know, Kenmore already has overseen extensive work on large sections of 522, with more to come on the so-called western section. Far more funding will be needed to make that overall project happen.

During various discussions of the intersection work, Loewen tried to relieve concerns that improvements done now would need to be torn up if and when the reconstruction of that stretch of 522 takes place.