The in basket: Charlie Ballew writes, “Twice this month I almost hit pedestrians (probably PSNS workers going to work) during the morning at 4th and Warren Avenue and 5th and Warren Avenue. The pedestrians were wearing dark clothing and I didn’t see them until I was almost on them.
“We need to have overhead street lights at these two intersections,” he said.
The out basket: Charlie’s comment echoes that of
Dale Gilchrist, who told an almost identical story back in March 2013, shortly after the center barrier was installed on Warren.
The city’s position then came from street engineer Gunnar Fridriksson, who said, “a recent city traffic study showed little nighttime accident history on Warren at that point.
“The accidents were primarily daytime – very few nighttime accidents,” he said. “I think there were four total for the report period in our traffic study – all vehicle accidents.
“So street lighting was not part of the design effort with the latest improvement. That being said, we have been trying to get resources to look at overall street lighting levels citywide. It is on our to-do list, just as we have time to get to it.”
I asked Gunnar’s successor, Jerry Hauth, what’s new and he said better lighting is coming to that stretch of Warren. He said Puget Sound energy “will be augmenting the lighting in this area in conjunction with the work on Americans with Disability Act ramps the state will start to install next spring.”
He included a preliminary sketch of the work, which shows four 35-foot wood poles to be installed with 102-watt LED lights that appear to go on diagonal corners of the two intersections.
If I read this correctly, the problem is that the intersections are too dark to be safe for pedestrians when the shipyard employees get off work. The answer is to wait until it is light again in the evening to install added lighting. Seems a bit backward to me.