The in basket: Complaints about the new alignment of the Provost
Road/Anderson Hill Road intersection west of Silverdale, with no
right turn lane being added on eastbound Anderson Hill, started to
come in in September, when Linda Akerman e-mailed the Road Warrior
blog about it. “The public made a right hand turn lane there on the
gravel/dirt before the construction started on the new building
being built there,” she said. “We need that right turn lane.”
Soon, Sharon OHara, Gary Allen, Mike Kendall and Rod Renfrow, plus
Bob Hoag of the Central Kitsap Community Council, weighed in with
the same opinion.
The in basket: Complaints about the new alignment of the Provost
Road/Anderson Hill Road intersection west of Silverdale, with no
right turn lane being added on eastbound Anderson Hill, started to
come in in September, when Linda Akerman e-mailed the Road Warrior
blog about it. “The public made a right hand turn lane there on the
gravel/dirt before the construction started on the new building
being built there,” she said. “We need that right turn lane.”
Soon, Sharon OHara, Gary Allen, Mike Kendall and Rod Renfrow, plus
Bob Hoag of the Central Kitsap Community Council, weighed in with
the same opinion. Finally, snail mail brought a semi-anonymous
letter bearing 12 first names and no last names saying not only are
they upset that the county did not make a right turn lane there,
“in fact, the project has made the road narrower than it was
before. Now people driving trucks, motor homes, trailers or large
vehicles cannot make that turn without going out in the middle of
the road on Provost and causing backups there also,” they said.
Mike and Rod said the lost room on the shoulder will imperil
bicyclists and Rod added, “I have a travel trailer that will
require me to move into the left hand lane to make the right turn
on Provost when coming down Anderson Hill Road.”
The out basket: County staff members made a mistake in approving
the existing radius created by the new curbing, say Doug Bear and
Jeff Shea of county public works and Jeff Rowe-Hornbaker of the
Department of Community Development.
“It is not adequate for the turn and the county is working with the
contractor to correct it and create a better turning radius,” Doug
said.
But, says Jeff, no right turn lane is planned. Traffic counts don’t
allow the county to require the developer of the corner to provide
land and money for such a lane and the county won’t stand the cost
on its own.
“It was determined that the construction
of the (new) building will not change the level of service at
the intersection,” Jeff said. “If the new development doesn’t
generate enough traffic
to degrade the intersection, the county can’t require the developer
to
do the improvements.
“As a rule of thumb from the Highway Capacity Manual,” he said, “an
exclusive
right-turn lane should be considered when the right-turn volume
exceeds
300 vehicles per hour and the adjacent through movement also
exceeds 300
vehicles per hour. At this intersection, the maximum number of
right turns is approximately 150 vehicles per hour. ”
I asked if the correction being negotiated with the contractor
might require repositioning the traffic signal support pole just
inside the curbing and Jeff said probably not.
Hey Road Warrior,
I believe county planners really messed this one up and certainly messed up a very busy intersection on one of the county’s busiest roads when they allowed the downsizing of the intersection at Anderson Hill and Provost to accommodate the largest orthopedics practice in the area that is conveniently located between a gas station and a motorcycle shop.
Believe it or not, the County’s own car count records show that Anderson Hill Road, just above the intersection, is one of the busiest roads in Kitsap County. In September (the last documented car count on the county web site) a daily average of 9,570 cars traveled Anderson Hill Road. My calculator says that over a 24-hour-period that is about 399 cars an hour, more than the 300 Jeff says is needed to require the developer to provide improvements. If you go down the hill just a bit to the intersection and include the cross traffic at Provost we might find plenty of traffic to justify intersection improvements and road widening. I think our friend Jeff in the planning office might want to re-check his figures or provide the public an explantion of how he came up with his numbers that seem to cover his planning back side and minimize developer expenses.
Having nearly missed a couple side-swipe incidents at the intersection and waiting in long traffic lines at various parts of the day because we can no longer make right turns at the intersection when coming down Anderson Hill Road, it’s hard to understand if there was any planning at all. Those trying to enter and exit the clinic at certain times of the day will certainly experience problems. Left turns into or out of the clinic property will be impossible at times and would not be safe at any time. The county planners need to understand the area is growing and therefore our roads and intersections of the future need to grow too.
It’s unfortunate but the intersection at Anderson Hill and Provost was safer for us before the county’s “planning and improvement” and needs to be fixed before that busy clinic opens for business and makes that intersection an even bigger nightmare for drivers and patients than it is now. Numbers be damned, to look at the grass and plants that will grow in the space that could have been used for a right turn lane as well as a larger intersection for safer access and egress for the clinic angers this driver and citizen. Quit planning for the past! One other thing, where are our bike lanes that are supposed to be part of new road improvements?
(Editor’s note: The county rationale for not requiring a right turn lane from Anderson Hill Road to Provost southbound is that 300 RIGHT-TURN movements an hour are needed to justify such a demand, not 300 cars per hour. And the 9,570 cars per day counted on Anderson Hill Road in September includes both directions of travel.
The counts do show that few other roads in the county carry more traffic. The counts can be seen online at http://www.kitsapgov.com/pw/pdf/pw_tcounts_2006.pdf)
I stand corrected on the right-turn movements. That said, it’s obvious that we missed an opportunity to improve the intersection for a growing neighborhood that the county has zoned for commercial enterprise.
Thank you.