The in basket: When I want to catch a ferry these days, I use the excellent Schedule by Date tab on the Washington State Ferries Web site (www.wsdot.com/ferries/schedule/). It eliminates the trap, into which I often fell in the past, of overlooking some symbol on the printed schedule that denoted a deviation from the normal schedule that particular day.

It also eliminates the need for a printed schedule, though I sometimes need one to come back, as I don’t have smart phone access to that Web site.

It calls to mind the days when I had a printed schedule in my wallet, in my desk at work and one in the glove compartment of each vehicle I owned. Now I never have one unless I need it for a return trip.

I wondered if the ready access of schedule information online had allowed WSF to greatly reduce the number of schedules it prints.

The out basket: Apparently not. Broch Bender of the ferry pubic information staff sent me a chart that showed 2 million standard print schedules printed for the summer of 2008 and 1.91 million for the past summer,  and 1.3 and 1.18 million, respectively, for the springs of those years. The winter standard print schedules those years showed a more noteworthy 26 percent reduction from 1 million in 2008 to 740,000 in 2014.

Even more noteworthy were the comparative figures for large print schedules, useful to the aging general and ferry-riding populations. There were only 4,000 to 6,000 of those printed each season of 2014, compared to 20,000 to 30,000 in 2008.

I asked about that.

The out basket: Marta Coursey of the WSF public relations said,  “Even in this age of smart phones and tablets, thousands of customers still request printed schedules. In fact, the communities we serve continuously protest we don’t do enough to inform folks who don’t have access to mobile technology. For this reason, printed schedules are still the norm at WSF.

“We decreased the number of overall print quantity for all of the schedules because a number of stakeholder groups commented that large printings are not environmentally friendly and we were seeing large ‘leftover’ quantities of unused schedules.  We actually increased the ratio of large print schedules because our data shows that we have larger and larger groups of middle-aged (48+) customers in need of the large print.

“We are currently using up the bulk of both large and regular print schedules and do not have much in the way of excess/remaining schedules at the end of the season.”

The in basket: For what I’m sure is a lot interest in when Bethel Road in South Kitsap will be made more drivable, John Susan is the only one who has asked me about it in 2014. He was moved to follow up his April inquiry with another this fall when he noticed that Lund Avenue to the east of Bethel had just gotten some full-depth patching, often called dig-outs.

“They worked on Lund, which was much better off than Bethel,” he said, adding that just repairing the sunken manholes on Bethel would have been a better use of the money.

The out basket: Different jurisdictions, John. Port Orchard annexed the Bethel corridor a few years ago and has been searching for money to accomplish short- and long-term upgrades of Bethel, as well as the city’s double-round-about plan for Tremont Street.

The Lund Avenue patching was done by the county, The city limits end just west of Hoover Avenue.

News coverage of Port Orchard City Council budget talks that included money for Bethel Avenue said 2015 work will be at the Lund-Bethel intersection. I wondered how broad that would be defined and whether it would extend up to the Walmart  traffic signal, where it seems the ride is the roughest.

Mark Dorsey, Port Orchard public works director, says, “The city will focus the 2015 asphalt repair work at Bethel-Lund, since this area will not be affected by future design modifications associated with the future Bethel corridor redesign.

“A complete grind and overlay is proposed. I do not have specific limits of yet, but it will not extend to Walmart. That will more than likely be 2016…and not a complete grind and overlay, but specific grind-outs with repair.

“The complete repair work is estimated at $1.7 million,” he said, “so the city needs to break the work up into affordable segments.”

The in basket: Darwin Alm read a Dec. 7 article in this newspaper about a $40,000 grant to study how to reduce speeding deaths on the local highways and thinks he sees a much better use for the money.

“I live in Sunnyslope just off Highway 3!!” he wrote to Andy Binion, the reporter who wrote the story.  Andy forwarded Darwin’s e-mail to me.

“We have to enter Highway 3 early in the morning to work at the shipyard!!” Darwin continued. “Every morning we wait at that intersection for at least 10 to 15 minutes because of high traffic!! Trying to get on 3 is a joke; sometimes you just take a risk and go for it!!”

Darwin really likes exclamation points. I wonder if he shouts when he talks.

“If you have someone in front of you taking a left to go to Belfair,  you will have a very LONG wait !!!!!” he went on. “My question to you is why can’t you spend some of that 40 K to put in a stop light at that intersection before someone gets killed, especially a child, instead of spending it all just to study how many deaths we have a year over a cup of coffee!!!! Looking forward to hearing back about this matter before we read in the paper about another preventable death !!!”

The out basket: Grant money usually is pretty limited in what it can be spent for, and $40,000 doesn’t go far in adding a traffic signal at an intersection these days. Andy pointed out to Darwin that he just reports where money comes from and how it will be spent. He doesn’t have a say in the decision.

But there are funding sources for traffic signals and I asked Claudia Bingham-Baker of the state’s Olympic Region of highways where the Sunnyslope Road intersection with Highway 3 stands in qualifying for one. I also asked for an approximation of what signals cost these days.

“Improvements like traffic control signals are installed as funding allows,” she replied. “A dozen intersections on SR 3 between Shelton and Gorst have higher collision histories than the SR 3/Sunnyslope intersection, so typically signal funding would be allocated to one of the other signals first. Unfortunately, that means it could be a while before drivers see a signal there. I wish I had better news.

“Depending on bids,” she said in reply to my final question, “an average signal purchase and installation costs closer to $400,000.”

The in basket: Larry Bartholomew of Poulsbo wonders when work on Lincoln Avenue will be finished.

In an Oct. 29 e-mail he wrote, “Attached is an April 2014 letter from the City of Poulsbo regarding a project affecting a two-block area on either side of the intersection of Pugh Road and Lincoln Road.

“As you can see from the letter, this project is due to be completed by the end of October. There are two days left in October and it’s clear there is far more than two days’ worth of work to be done.  In fact, given the pace of the work done so far, it looks like it will be months, rather than days, before the work will be completed.

“I understand that paving requires a minimum temperature, and we are quickly approaching a period of consistent lower temperatures.  My guess is that paving may soon become problematic if temperature is an issue.”

He also was upset by the configuration of Lincoln and Pugh during the work. “The corner of the curbing creates a restriction of space for those entering Pugh from Lincoln, or vice versa, that appears barely large enough for two cars to pass in opposite directions. This will likely require those turning onto Pugh from Lincoln to come to almost a complete stop when there is a car waiting to turn onto Lincoln from Pugh.”

“I’m sure my neighbors and others who traverse Pugh and Lincoln roads would like to know when this project in now expected to be complete and what the thinking was that led to the significant narrowing of the entrance onto Pugh Road.”

The out basket: City Engineer Andrzej Kasiniak told me on Nov. 10 that they hoped to have the paving done by Thanksgiving, but there remains some to do. As Larry predicted, the weather is a growing impediment.

Michael Lund, chief inspector on the project provided an update this week.

“The Lincoln Road project is definitely behind schedule,” he said. “There were some unknown underground utilities that hampered the project early on and now the weather delays are definitely a concern.

“The contractor is Pacific Coast General from Port Orchard. They were able to get the first lift of asphalt on the road prior to Thanksgiving. The plan was to do some more paving at the Pugh intersection today and then start on the pervious bike lanes. The extreme cold temps have pushed that off a day or so but they are very hopeful to get one lift of asphalt on everything by the end of this week.”

“The concrete crews will start pouring sidewalk later this week, as well.

“The lighting crews are scheduled to install the rest of the street lights later this week and into next week. This will make it a lot nicer during the evening hours traveling the roadway.

“I received a revised schedule from the contractor today and they are trying to be completed before Christmas.

“There is  still a lot of work to do and we are trying to get it done as soon as possible.”

He said finished paving and striping will make the turn at Pugh less of a problem.

“The intersection meets all safety standards and at the tightest point has 10-foot-wide lanes,” Mike said.. “However, with the road only being gravel at this time, (drivers) tend to shy away from the curb and encroach into the center of the lanes more than they will once the final paving is completed.

“With striping, it will help the (drivers) to understand where their lane is and allow for oncoming traffic to pass by.

“Part of the problem with this intersection is we do not have the right of way to make a wider intersection and still have pedestrian connectivity with the sidewalk. The existing roadway prior to construction pinched down to about 20 feet as well within the right of way. (But) the traveling public would turn, drive and park on the private property. This gave the illusion that there was more roadway out there than actually legally was.

“If any of the traveling public has concerns or comments  they can email me at mlund@cityofpoulsbo.com.”

Lincoln Pugh intersection shown below