The in basket: I went to the city of Bremerton Web site to find out when the next work party will be to clean up the median of the Gateway (Highway 304) on the west side of town, and came across something that surprised me.
I saw a notice that the city is paving this week on Lake Flora Road and West Belfair Valley Road.
I didn’t know any portion of Lake Flora Road was in the city. And though I often write about the deteriorating condition of the city’s portion of West Belfair Valley Road (you may think of it as Old Belfair Highway, its name in Mason County), I thought there was little hope for improvement money in the foreseeable future.
I learned I was sorely out of date in my understanding of how far south along Highway 3 the city limits extend. Bremerton National Airport. the Olympic View Industrial Park and the first stretch of Lake Flora Road from Highway 3 all are in the city.
They all were annexed in 2009, says Allison Satter of city community development. I had thought city jurisdiction there was limited to city watershed land.
The paving this week will be overlaying the existing pavement. Money for the work comes from a grant the city got from the Puget Sound Regional Council. None of if comes from the car tab add-on the city has been collecting for two years. Other streets have been chosen for work with that money this year.
Managing Street Engineer Gunnar Fridriksson said the grant money was for arterial streets only and they chose these two to avoid dealing with sidewalks. The overlay will use a Kevlar fiber in the hot mix to span weak portions of the roads that otherwise would need a much more costly full reconstruction, he said. West Belfair Valley Road will be repaved from Division Street in Gorst to the entrance to Gold Mountain Golf Course. Lake Flora Road paving was from Highway 3 to where county jurisdiction begins.
That SR304 work party that prompted my search is Saturday morning, incidentally.