Speed limit change coming near Gorst

The in basket: A reader whose name I’ve misplaced asked over a year ago why the speed limit coming out of Gorst heading toward Tacoma remains 50 miles per hour almost to the Tremont interchange. There doesn’t seem to be any reason that it shouldn’t go to 60, the speed limit from Tremont south, right after it passes Anderson Hill Road, he said.

The in basket: A reader whose name I’ve misplaced asked over a year ago why the speed limit coming out of Gorst heading toward Tacoma remains 50 miles per hour almost to the Tremont interchange. There doesn’t seem to be any reason that it shouldn’t go to 60, the speed limit from Tremont south, right after it passes Anderson Hill Road, he said.
The out basket: Lisa Murdock of the Olympic Region of state highways, which includes Kitsap County, says the region’s traffic engineers have reviewed the location and agree that 60 mph is the proper speed after one passes Anderson Hill Road. She expects if to be raised to to that speed by mid-April.
That stretch of roadway going in the other direction, toward Gorst, will remain at 50 mph. It crosses the narrow bridge under which Highway 166 to Port Orchard passes and is approaching the congested Gorst area, making 60-mph too fast there.
Until a few years ago, the state wouldn’t allow different speed limits in opposite directions on the same highway, not even when it was a divided highway like Highway 16 south of Gorst. But they changed their minds and raised the limit on Highway 3 going north from the Highway 304 interchange on, while maintaining the 50 mph limit in the southbound lanes. Now they’ll do the same south of Gorst.
The increase in Gorst will disappoint another reader who called me about the same time as I got the suggestion that the southbound speed limit be raised to 60. He said cars coming out of Gorst already are doing 60 or more to climb the hill. He said that posting an additional 50 mph sign just past Anderson Hill Road would remind those drivers that the speed limit hadn’t changed, and make it safer for those entering the highway there in the short acceleration lane. There’ll be such a sign posted now, but it will say 60, not 50.