The in basket; As I drove east on Lund Avenue away from Bethel Road in South Kitsap recently, I noticed fairly severe “alligatoring,” the irregular cracks that develop in an aging roadway. The roughness in front of Safeway is what caught my eye in the first place, and I noticed it continued to a lesser degree all the way to in front of the West Sound Utility complex.
I looked at the county’s six-year plan for capital improvements, called the TIP and extending out six years, but found nothing that mentioned Lund except a new traffic signal at Lund and Harris Road in 2015. I asked the county if it thought that portion of Lund will last more than six years without being repaved.
The out basket: Paving isn’t a capital project so doesn’t appear on the TIP, said Doug Bear of county public works. There are lists of both repaving and chip seal projects planned for this year viewable online at the county’s Web site, divided into North, Central and South Kitsap projects.
It’s not shown online yet, but the county’s worn stretch of Lund is due repaving next year, he said, except for the last few hundred yards before one reaches Bethel Road heading west, where the road’s condition first caught my eye. That has been annexed to the city of Port Orchard. Mark Dorsey, city public works director, says they hope to find money for dig-outs and patching work there and along the rest of the Bethel Corridor next year. Anything more substantial is years away, he said.
The county’s six-year-TIP can be seen at www.kitsapgov.com/pw/pdf/2013-2018_TIP.pdf. The 2013 paving and chip seal plans are at www.kitsapgov.com/pw/roadpave.htm and www.kitsapgov.com/pw/roadchipseal.htm, respectively.
I can’t use up a lot of space saying what paving is planned this year, but I can tease you by saying parts of Clear Creek Road, Angeline Avenue, Suquamish Way, Ridgetop Boulevard, Gold Creek Road, Pioneer Road, Price Road, Harlow Drive, Spruce Road, Collins Road, Converse Avenue and Beach Drive are on the list, along with many others. Look them up if you’re interested.
A couple of definitions to close: Chip seals are pavings done by pouring gravel on hot oil spread on the old pavement. Dig outs involve grinding out a few inches of deteriorated pavement in rectangles, and filling the holes with new asphalt.
