The in basket: I was surprised Monday when I turned left from Burwell Street to Warren Avenue in Bremerton to find a crew making saw cuts in the pavement of the inside northbound lane. Traffic was reduced to a single lane northbound on Warren almost to Fifth Street. I asked what it was for.
The out basket: Drivers will have to get used to northbound Warren being a single lane from Burwell to Sixth Street. Gunnar Fridriksson of the city’s street engineers said the work is the opening volley of a series of projects to make the city safer for pedestrians and bicyclists wanting to cross busy streets.
As a by-product, it soon will no longer be possible to cross Warren at either Fourth or Fifth streets. Only right turns will be possible at both. A raised island where the walkers and bikes can pause half-way across will block auto cross-traffic at both intersections. It should be the end of T-bone crashes involving cars on Warren and those crossing it at those two streets while giving pedestrians an alternative to dashing across the entire street in one movement.
The raised island will stretch from near Burwell to just past Fifth Street. “(They) are built
with standard 6-inch curb and will have patterned red-concrete infill,” Gunnar said.
Stan Palmer Construction was the only bidder on the work at $769,600 and was given the contract by city council action on July 18.
Gunnar said 20 city locations have been shown to be dangerous places for pedestrians and bicyclists and the city got funding to address about half of them. Most are less extensive, involving revision to crosswalks, bicycle lanes on Kitsap Way and meeting new Americans with Disability Act requirements. Warren and 16th at the main entrance to Olympic College is the only other one with a new refuge island.
Another brilliant move by the town council. Warren Avenue is the main road north and south through Bremerton, so it only makes sense to constrict it. And to add another signal just for OC’s use is even better. Never mind there are already two (three if you include the one off Chester) entrances and exits from OC, they ewant another light to slow traffic even more.
I don’t know why the mayor doesn’t just put up signs at the entrance to Bremerton saying vehicles are not wanted. That is already the word for the core area – she wants the parking spaces reduced in size to acommodate “modern” cars. That was one of the responses I received when I questioned the motives of narrowing Fourth Street. And I see the plan now is to erect even more condos along Washington that will pretty much eliminate that street from the traffic grid. just what we need – more empty buildings. And the taxpayers will probably be used to back the loans as was done for the previous condos.
I cant beleive what they are doing fixing the park Qwanas is fine, but they are putting in these rather large “planters” by 5th and High street, so no parking for us and I hope it wont look like the round one down 5th in the middle of the road it looks like a weed fest. Why didnt they spend the money on repaving 5th st, been here over 30 years and the concret is falling apart, what a mess, they came in and ripped out all the trees in the park, and are moving dirt around, just like when we first came here in 1978, took out all the beautiful cherry trees that lined the st, so wasteful, so needless, but they got some money and they just had to spend it
Do any of these council folks live here in town
I think we need to bar the city road “engineers” from getting into the police evidence locker and stealing the drugs. First we had the brilliant decision to offload all ferry traffic through the tunnel, so all the Manette-bound traffic now has to go on either Park or Warren. Then they decided to narrow down both 4th St. and Park Ave, which really helps a lot. The “Hey, let’s turn 5th St. into a one-way street without telling ANYONE we’re going to do it and without posting it” debacle was fun, especially when people were still turning up 5th from Washington only to meet eastbound cars head-on. The awkward Manette roundabout and termination of the former stop-free arterial through Manette is pretty annoying. And now, just to make sure we all know without a shadow of a doubt they are idiots (not mere morons or imbeciles, but full blown IDIOTS), they decide to take out half the travel capacity of the main travel path through town. They should all be fired.
Interesting comments. Let me address the condition of roads and streets. The Transportation baord (AKA town counci) has decided to only repair streets/roads that have been graded as “good” and “fair,” and to let the worst ones go unattended. Their reasoning, as reported in the Sun, is they can get more work done for a set amount of money. So, apparently, the streets/roads that need repair the most will deteriorate to dirt long before any work is done to them, because they will never become “good” or “fair” enough to warrant repairs. The tunnel was dug because Norm Dicks was able to secure the $$ and told Bremerton leaders “use it or lose it,” also as reported by the Sun. I’m sure there was never a second thought given to the impact on traffic other than to keep it away from the “core” of Bremerton. We certainly don’t want people to drive though town and maybe stop for dinner or at a store. That may disrupt all the pedestrian traffic filling the streets. Then of cours the Manette roundabout, another wonderul piece of engineering. The WSDOT people reported, after seeing a bus had a difficult time negotiating the turn, said “…it loked OK on the computer.” Also reported by the Sun. Then the outstanding job on Fourth Street. The pavers, while looking very nice, aren’t installed so they are flush with the cross-ties of concrete. When I questioned the shoddy workmanship, I was told by the Mayor that was done on purpose to keep traffic slow. The only thing people will think is “What a shoddy job.” The mayor did say she suspects the pavers to settle aftar awhile. To me, that’s further evidence of poor workmanship. Wanna see more? Go check out the piece of 18th Street between Perry Avenue and Winfield. Several years ago, a water line was replaced, and the trench filled in and paved over. Sure enough, the fill settled (as the mayor predicts for Fourth Street), and so did the pavment. Now the settled part is at least six inched below grade in sone areas, and the entitre strip has settled. Another outstanding job by Bremerton PW department. Of course, it will never be repaired because I doubt it meets the criteria of a “good” or “fair” street. And the intersection of 18th and Winfield is another continuous problem area – water bubbles up during the winter. Ask your councilperson about the permeable pavement that was laid on Pacific Ave., and what is being done to repair the areas that are coming apart in chunks. As for the council living in town, I believe that is a requirement to hold office. It would be intersting to know if any of them ever leave their offices to see the town, other than the bustling “core” area with leaky and settling buildings, (corner of Pacific and 11th), again reported by the Sun. It would be OK to vote in new people who have leadership ability, not just rubber stamp expetise. Just sayin’.
Oh yeah, and we forgot to mention the new and “better” traffic light arrangement at Burwell and Warren where everyone coming east has to sit for the entire time the west-bound traffic is moving. Used to be the left turn arrow for west-bound traffic to go south was short, just like any other intersection. Now, hardly any cars need to go that way, but the east-bound lineup sits there and waits nonetheless. Ahhh well…. I guess the only thing we can look forward to is when 10 or 20 years from now they are making even worse calls and we look back at these current issues as “the good old days”!!! Scary!
I had to hunt for this blog because I’ve noticed the ridiculous curb impeding traffic on Warren. How can they possibly blow tax dollars on this?!? Isn’t the point of the major roads to allow vehicle traffic? And there are two traffic signals just a block away from those crosswalks, which SHOULD allow pedestrians and bicyclists to cross safely. I don’t feel there’s much thinking going on here. Downtown, while looking nice, has become a bear to drive down. Now Warren is unusable. But our money is already spent and who does anything about it?