BEDS study called “disappointing”
July 15th, 2010 by Rachel PritchettBloggers,
Wednesday, Port of Bremerton commissioners met with the Bremerton City Council to touch base on topics of mutual interest.
The state’s pending Bremerton Economic Development Study (BEDS) quickly came up.
The study, which is still in draft form, plots out priorities for highway improvements on Highway 3 between Gorst and Belfair and Highway 16 around Gorst and a little south. The priorities will be in effect for decades to come. When state Department of Transportation monies periodically become available, the improvements will be chosen from the plan’s prioritized list of projects. End of discussion.
Port commission President Bill Mahan called the study “disappointing” in that instead of calling for a bridge or causeway across Sinclair Inlet and bypassing Gorst, it calls for an eventual eight lanes going through Gorst.
The area is among the most chronically congested sections of highways in the state.
Mahan has been the fighter for inclusion of the bridge in the study, but has met opposition from state transportation planners, who cite cost.
He also understands that this is the one and only project-prioritizing document and if the concept of a bridge is not included now, it never will be.
“If we don’t plan now, it will never happen,” Mahan told his colleagues and Bremerton City Council members.
Many seemed to agree Wednesday with Mahan’s deep concern.
The draft will once again be circulated among the stakeholders including the port and city for one last chance for input. That should happen in three weeks or so. Port and city leaders agreed to their response which will call for a bridge.
Then the study will be final, for many years to come.
This is a biggie, and I’m anxious to see what the plan will determine, once it’s carved into stone.
The planned South Kitsap Industrial Area (SKIA) came up for discussion, as well.
Port CEO Cary Bozeman predicted that manufacturers that will be attracted there someday will employ 10,000 workers. That’s about the size of the shipyard, he said. Bozeman pointed out that the BEDS study inadequately addresses that potential traffic impact. Commerce, Bozeman said, can’t be delayed by a traffic holdup on two-lane Highway 3.
SKIA, if it materializes, would be Kitsap’s biggest industrial area by far, consisting of about 3,500 acres. Half of that now-undeveloped property is owned by the port, and the rest is owned by private interests.
SKIA is within the city of Bremerton, and a subarea-planning process is now under way. The city has hired a consultant to work on that in coming months.
Scripps Interactive Newspapers Group
July 15th, 2010 at 9:56 am
You know what’s REALLY disappointing? The cost of the “study”: $673,500.