The in basket: Bob Corbin of South Kitsap wonders about the pace of work on replacing the culverts that allow Anderson Creek to pass beneath highways 16 and 166 in Gorst.

Crews seem to be working only regular weekday hours, he said. Given the traffic disruptions, he would have expected the work to continue into the evening and weekends.

The out basket: Claudia Bingham-Baker, spokeswoman for the Olympic Region of state highways, says the contract for the culvert replacement states only the number of work days allowed to complete the work, with interim deadlines for each of the three culverts associated with the road closures. It  leaves it up to the winning bidder how to schedule it.

In a separate reply to a North Kitsap resident about similar work to replace culverts in the Kingston area this summer, she wrote, in part, “Work (there) will be going on day and night, and people who live nearby should expect to hear night construction noise. We apologize in advance for that disruption, but we wanted to minimize the time the highway would be closed by tightening the construction schedule as much as possible.”

I asked why the tighter construction schedule near Kingston and not near Gorst.

Claudia replied, “When WSDOT designs a project and includes a construction timeframe, we try to balance several issues, including available resources, inconvenience to the public, project costs, quality control, permit requirements, etc. Faster is not always better, as there can be a point of diminishing returns when too many people and too much equipment get in the way of each other.”

“We could force contractors to work around the clock by shortening roadway closure times, but that kind of work schedule greatly increases project costs both for contractors and state staff overseeing the work. Those increased costs get transferred to higher contract bids and more expensive projects.

“This particular project also has the added complication of in-water work restrictions that limit when the contractor can be working in the stream. We looked at all these factors and developed the contract with the conditions that we believe reflected the best approach.”

I saw work going on at the Gorst project in the evening Friday and on Saturday, July 22 and 23, so the contractor seems to have picked up the pace, for whatever reason. And I thought the replacement of the first two of the three Anderson Creek culverts went quite quickly. Still, Claudia says the entire Gorst project is expected to extend into November.

She didn’t say so, but I’d guess the close proximity of the Kingston ferry run, one of the state ferries’ busiest, had a lot to do with the greater pressure for haste there. At least that’s the reason the project was limited to five weekdays for the first of the three culverts there, the one at Grover’s Creek, to avoid the heavy weekend ferry traffic.

The in basket: Jim, who didn’t provide a last name, saw the recent Road Warrior column that provided information from Kitsap’s County’s Road Superintendent Jacques Dean about what’s being done on Gold Creek Road near the Kitsap/Mason County line and wrote, ”I have one question for Jacques Dean. Why in the world would you not use a roller to harden the chip seal work instead of letting traffic do the work for them. Will the county pay for all the rock chips or cracked windshields that will happen to my new car. If the county wants to help, put in speed bumps on the road to slow down the race car-like track speeders that happen everyday.”

The out basket: I’m scrubbing egg off my face, as I’ve discovered that that column perpetuated bad information I have dispelled off and on over the years of writing Road Warrior about the final stages of a chip seal, a low cost means of repaving and preserving roads. They don’t rely only on vehicle traffic to imbed the gravel into the oil they spread on first, it turns out.

Jacques says, “When we do a chip seal we utilize pneumatic rollers (tire rollers) to initially seat the rock in the underlying oil, and follow immediately with a steel drum roller to further seat the rock and to smooth out the rock surface.

“We typically do not sweep up loose rock on the roadway immediately after placement but allow it to remain on the surface until the oil cures sufficiently. We gain further rock capture in the oil through vehicle travel and kneading of the rock on the roadway. Our practice is to sweep up loose rock within two days of placement, with follow-up sweepings a week or two after placement to gather any remaining rock.

“All of our freshly chipped roadways are signed with ‘Loose Gravel’ and ‘Motorcycles Use Caution’ signs. Travelers on these roadways should reduce their speed to prohibit loose rock from flying. Most drivers adhere to these warning signs and, as such, we rarely receive claims for damaged windshields.

“We have not chip sealed Gold Creek yet,” he said. “It is scheduled to be completed later this week, or next. We have completed preparatory work in advance of chip sealing in the form of full depth patching in those areas of significant deterioration, and have pre-leveled some areas of the roadway to correct crown and longitudinal and transverse dips in the roadway.”

I got my erroneous understanding of how the rock is imbedded decades ago while I was a reporter for this paper and Jim’s scolding finally got me to check on whether it was right.

Jacques also addressed Jim’s aside about speed bumps.

“Installation of speed tables/speed bumps on our roadways is only applied in special circumstances, and only after public petition and heavy scrutiny from our traffic engineers. Posted roadway speeds generally must be less than 30 mph, 70 percent of affected property owners must support installation, and an engineering analysis of actual speeds, crash history, law enforcement and fire service input, etc. is completed.

“Other traffic calming countermeasures are implemented in a progressive manner with passive measures installed first and physical devises used if needed. Passive traffic calming measures include signage, pavement markings, trimming excess vegetation, radar signs, traffic law enforcement and public education.”

The in basket:  Mike Dalzell asks, “When, if ever, is Lebo (Boulevard in Bremerton) going to be repaved. If it’s not the worst

street in Bremerton, I’m not sure what would be. It’s terrible to drive on and even worse on a bicycle.

“You can tell immediately when you transition

from Tracyton Beach (Road) to Lebo where Sheridan Ts into it and then again when you get past the community center.”

The out basket: Tom Knuckey, Bremertons’ city engineer, says, “We have a significant reconstruction project under design right now for Lebo from the connection with Lower Wheaton Way north to the city limits.

“Our plan is to bid and construct the project next year.  The project will have similar scope to the Lower Wheaton Way project we recently completed (bike lanes, sidewalks, pavement, illumination, etc.,) but will have shared use paths in places also.

“We’ve had a couple public meetings to coordinate the scope, and will have another in September (or thereabouts) after we’re received and commented on the 30 percent design,” he said.

The in basket: On a recent car trip to Shelton, I noticed that the state had applied the experimental wide striping to the edge and lane lines on Highway 3 through the Pickering Road intersection north of the city. The painted lines are twice as wide as the ordinary striping.

The wider lines were installed two years ago on South Shore Road (Highway 106) along Hood Canal and on Highway 303 between Purdy and Allyn. The idea was to give drivers the impression the highway is narrower than it is, causing them to drive more slowly. At the time, the state said it would evaluate the striping over the ensuing year to see if it accomplished that goal.

I asked what that evaluation showed.

The out basket: Claudia Bingham Baker of the state highway department’s Olympic Region, says,

“Applying the 8-inch wide striping was a pilot project to evaluate its effectiveness as a speed-management and crash-reduction tool. Wider striping makes the lane appear more narrow, and we wanted to see if that perception deterred speeding and helped people stay in the lane.

“Our before/after speed study showed no significant difference in operating speeds. We are still collecting crash data to see if the wider striping is helping people stay in the lane. It takes 3-4 years to collect enough data to have meaningful conclusions. At present we do not plan to apply wider striping in new locations.”