The in basket: Mike Burton writes, “The city of Bremerton has put a lot of effort and expense into making the roads and sidewalks in the downtown area and, specifically, Pacific Avenue look very nice, and they plan to continue that north of Sixth Street on Pacific.
“As they were doing all of this,” Mike said, “the city purposely worked around a section of the sidewalk between Second Street and Burwell Avenue on the east side of Pacific. That section looks awful compared to everything else the city has done.
“Is there an explanation? Are there any plans to ‘fix’ that so that it conforms with all of the surrounding sidewalks?”
“Mostly the problem is aesthetic,” he conceded, ” but it is a bit uneven, especially where the patches and the ‘tar’ that they use for sealing meet, compared to the rest of the sidewalk around it. It just looks ridiculous, considering the city’s efforts to make all this look so nice!”
The out basket: Gunnar Fridriksson of the city engineering staff says, “That ‘sidewalk’ is actually the top for a very large vault that houses the electrical servicing the Harborside Commons garage (the old JC Penney building).
“WIth the tunnel project, we did look at trying to either have it replaced or resurfaced to make it more presentable. Unfortunately, due to the way it was constructed, we were unable to find an economical way of doing so that met with the state’s schedule for the completion of the improvements.
“Depending on what happens with the building, there may be an opportunity in the future for improvement. ”
It appears the effort around the new theater and parking garage is aimed at reducing or eliminating vehicular traffic on Fourth Street, with that circular whatever-it-is that is raised above grade, the narrowing of Park Avenue in that area, the elimination of parking on Fourth, and the huge bump-outs at Fourth and Park. Is that the plan – to eliminate traffic? I have asked the city council twice if there is a published plan somewhere that shows the finished project, but so far no answers. I don’t see busses having a very easy transit through that area.
@ Gary – Travis Baker addressed that in this article:
http://pugetsoundblogs.com/roadwarrior/2012/03/27/is-that-a-roundabout-going-in-at-4th-and-park/
It sounds like it will all work out when done. I wish they had a plan to show the finished project too!
I hope all the money being spent will include finding some way to bring businesses back into Bremerton instead of driving them away, running out into the County to escape.
There is one large problem that just won’t go away with this project. That is COMMUNICATION! It is difficult to be supportive when the businesses involved in the area are not kept informed. Last week I listened to another of many businesses that have approached the city about not being informed by the city when part or all of their access was blocked preventing customers from reaching their locations.
Communication should be of a higher priority for the city so that those that still have businesses in downtown bremerton can survive. That doesn’t seem to be a priority at this point.