The in basket: Jerry Darnall of Kingston writes, “The recent county road patches on Miller Bay Road from Kountry Korners south to Gunderson are crumbling faster than a graham cracker in milk. Opposing traffic splashes gravel like shotgun pellets. Defective mix? Improper install? Is county assuming any liability for an obvious problem?”

I asked if it was another chip seal that had problems, which has happened in the past.

The out basket: Jacques Dean, county road superintendent says, “Miller Bay Road is surfaced with asphalt pavement, not chip seal.  Crews used cold mix asphalt to repair the potholes with the intent of returning during better weather to complete a more permanent repair.”

“Cold mix is a temporary repair product that typically holds up well in wet weather applications but can degrade under extreme wet conditions.”  Crews were to revisit the area Friday and repair again with cold mix, he said.

“Dryer weather should ensure a better bond with the underlying pavement.  We will look for a longer dry weather window to complete more permanent hot mix asphalt repairs,” Jacques said.

As for liability, I’m sure the county won’t make any blanket offers, but individuals can make a claim to county risk management and see what the response is.

The in basket: I have written a lot about speed bumps, and speed humps and speed tables and their various approaches to slowing down drivers by requiring then to slow down or suffer anything from a rattle in the trunk to a broken suspension.

Generally I’ve addressed complaints about them from readers or ideas on how they can be made less disruptive.

I have been spending a lot of time recently in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and environs, and let me tell you you don’t know how good you’ve got it in Kitsap County.

The out basket: In Mexico, or at least in Baja California Sur, as the southern half of the Baja Peninsula is called, speed bumps/humps/tables are called “topes,” pronounced TOH-pays, and they will make you thankful for a mere speed bump, which is the worst of the three kinds in the Northwest.

There are two kinds in Cabo. The least objectionable are a series of round rises that run in a row across the road. In the states they would be called RPMs, for raised pavement markers, or, familiarly, “turtles.” They are, at least, not hard to see and not especially damaging if you hit them too hard. Many of the rows are missing a turtle or several and you can minimize the bounce by aiming for the gaps.

They can be deployed as they are in the states, but I’ve also seen them at the stop signs on two downhill legs of  a city intersection, forcing great care at the signs.

Then there is the other kind. They might be made of asphalt, concrete or even dirt. They span the roadway and are tall and painful to go over at a normal speed. Worst of all, little effort is made to make them visible as a variation in the road surface and there are no signs warning of them. They are devilishly hard to see at night.

I’m told it’s not unusual for passengers to yell out “Tope!!” when they don’t think the driver has seen one. Brake shops in Cabo must love them, as braking suddenly when you realize you’re about to cross one (or your passengers have just loudly warned you)

is a common experience. Still, that’s a lot better than hitting one at the speed limit. That could require an auto repair shop or conceivably, a body shop.

A main freeway through Cabo will be flanked by parallel access roads on each side, ingress and egress to which is regulated, as you see in HOV lanes in the states. You don’t have to worry about topes on the freeway, where the speed limit is 90 kilometers per hour (60 mph). It’s on the access roads that you’ll find topes and, perhaps as a result of the widespread destruction wreaked in 2014 by Hurricane Odile, they are often augmented by fearsome potholes.

I’ve been driven around the area so far, and haven’t had to watch for topes while behind the wheel. It’s a thrill I can’t say I’m looking forward to.

The in basket: A Gomez writes, “Olympic Avenue between Sixth Street and Burwell Avenue (in Bremerton) is so narrow and with parking allowed on both sides, only one car can fit going in any direction.

“Why doesn’t the city of Bremerton make Olympic Avenue a one-way street just like Fourth and Fifth streets between Olympic and Naval that are as narrow and long as Olympic Avenue?”

The out basket: I had not heard this suggestion before, and neither had Jerry Hauth, who took over the job of city traffic engineer just last year.

“Without further consideration, and probably public input, I don’t have an opinion on this,” he said. “This is the first I have heard of this. As we saw with the suggested closure of Veneta, the community sometimes has very strong feelings about some of this stuff.”

Changing two-way streets to one-way is often a hot-button issue, especially if there are businesses on the street, which isn’t the case on Olympic.

It would be a logical place for such a change through. As the reader notes, the block of Fourth and Fifth between Naval Avenue and Olympic already is what’s called a one-way couplet, with traffic moving in opposite directions. More significantly, the next parallel street to Olympic on the west is one-way southbound.

A. Gomez should take it up with his city councilperson, Dino Davis, who can be reached through the council office at 473-5280 or online at city.council@ci.bremerton.wa.us

The in basket: During my intermittent visits to Silverdale, I come to wonder how the replacement of the Clear Creek culverts with a bridge on Bucklin Hill Road is coming, whether it’s on, ahead of or behind schedule and the likely date for reopening the road.

The county’s Web site describes the work being done each week, but I didn’t find anything about the time line.

It’s easy for me to be blasé about the difficulties the work creates for drivers, being there only every other week or so. Still, from what I’ve seen, I’d rather drive there during the construction that on I-5 on an average weekday morning.

The out basket: Tina Nelson, the county’s senior project manager says the work seems to be slightly ahead of schedule.

“The overall project is on schedule for completion and opening of the roadway in July,” she said, then added, “That is in essence ahead of schedule as we have been planning a 14-month closure, and we are now looking at no more than 13 months.

“The exact date in July will be determined this spring when all unknowns have been accounted for. We have encountered some challenges with the utility work, finding unknown utilities and old timbers, slowing down the utility work and requiring engineering revisions.

“As we get out of the ground, the unknowns are less likely, and we can be more certain of the completion date.  The contractor may be adding hours and working on Saturdays to assure a July completion.

“We have heard from the public that they like to know what is happening, so we started updating the webpage (www.bucklinhill.com) weekly with the activities taking place.”