The in basket: I’ve been driving past a number of traffic cones deployed along the waterside guardrail on Highway 166 between Port Orchard and Gorst for a couple of months now. There once were four on the pavement and two atop the guardrail, but I think one of our windstorms blew away all but two of those on the pavement.

It’s easy to see why they are there. A section of guardrail is slumping away. A little farther toward Gorst, a crack has developed in the pavement.

That stretch is well known to most locals for the series of slides that until recently came down from above regularly and blocked the highway until they could be removed.

Less well known is the time, perhaps 25 years ago or longer, when the entire roadway dropped 10 feet or so, closing it for weeks. As crews removed what fell, they found layer after layer of asphalt that had been used to address lesser slumps over the years. All that extra weight was believed to have contributed to the highway’s failure.

The state used light weight material, wood chips, if I recall correctly, for the fill that repaired the failure.

I wondered if today’s problems are just a failed guardrail of if something worse is suspected.

The out basket: Claudia Bingham Baker, spokeswoman for the Olympic Region of state highways, says “Our materials staff looked at the site in question (milepost 1.2). They will add the area to our statewide Unstable Slope List, which will put it in the line-up for a more robust permanent fix as funds become available (which, to be candid, could take years).

“In the meantime, our maintenance crews will maintain the road with guardrail repairs and asphalt patches.”

She included mention of the Web site describing the state’s Unstable Slope Management Program. The address is about a mile long, so I went to http://www.wsdot.wa.gov and asked for Unstable Slopes Program, which got me there.

I thought it odd the site wasn’t already on the unstable slopes list, due to all the past slides from above, but Claudia says it’s just now being added.

_________________________

The in basket: Ken Hovater writes,”A couple of years ago the county installed several feet of heavy duty guardrail on Long Lake Road. At the time I believe the reasoning was to bring the road into compliance with a highway construction standard.

“I am wondering when and if the state is going to do the same work on Highway 160 (Sedgwick Road). There are some very deep valleys in spots along that road. A crash into one could prove fatal.”

The out basket: The county project on Long Lake Road came out of a safety grant received for that purpose.

Sedgwick is a state highway and Olympic Region spokesperson Claudia Bingham Baker says, “Guardrail is usually installed when we have an active project in an area.  At present, we have no projects planned on SR 160, so no plans to add guardrail along the highway.

“Our maintenance crews replace and repair damaged guardrail, of course, where it already exists,” she said. State crews here just did that, replacing the guardrail around the Highway 16 overpass in front of Peninsula Subaru in Gorst. It had been mangled for the second time in a couple of years and was replaced Sept. 4.

Claudia continues, “We have many areas along our state highways that have dips along the roadway. Guardrail itself can become a hazardous object motorists can hit, so it’s installed only in areas that meet certain criteria. Even then, we do not have the funds to install guardrail in all the areas that could benefit from it.”

The in basket: Bryant Arnold wonders about

some new guardrail he has seen near Bremerton.

“Heading south out of Illahee, climbing the hill towards Trenton,” he said. “we are now the proud owners of new guardrails!

“Having driven that road at least twice a day for the past 12 years I cannot remember ever seeing anyone at the bottom of a ravine, but giving the county the benefit of the doubt how many lives have been lost on that stretch of road?

“Could that money not have been used for a more dangerous problem? Who authorized it and what were their thoughts?”

The out basket: I have driven that stretch far less often than Bryant, but I’m not a total stranger to it and I can’t say I agree with his notion that guardrails are unwarranted there.

In several spots, running off the east side of the road to the east has the potential for rolling one’s car several times unless some trees stop you.

In fact, Bryant said that within a week of his contacting me in early January, a car did run off one of the unprotected spots, but was still visible from the road.

I think a better question is what commended the three sites on that downgrade that recently got guard rail over the four or five comparable drop-offs that didn’t.

The out basket: Kitsap County Traffic Engineer Jeff Shea says, “Running off the road is historically the most frequent type of collision on county roads. The danger increases when you run off the road and hit a fixed object or roll over on an embankment, often resulting in injury, and in some cases fatalities.

“We are working to bring all county roads up to clear-zone standards by eliminating safety issues or protecting motorists from the hazards with barriers such as guardrail.

“We dedicate funds every other year for installing and upgrading guardrail.

“We use very specific (criteria) for guardrail installation.  Our primary focus is on long steep embankments on higher speed (35 MPH or more) roadways, and high-volume roads. The area of Illahee Road to which your reader refers has a long steep embankment, exacerbated by seasonal standing water at the bottom of the slope.  Combined with the speed limit (35 mph) there, the fact that it is an arterial road, and an average daily volume of over 2,000 vehicles, installing guardrail there makes the road safer.”

There is a set amount of funding available each year for our guardrail program. This requires us to prioritize locations at which we make guardrail upgrades or installations. If we had unlimited funding we probably would have installed guardrail at each location you noted. With limited funding we had to make some choices.

“The rail above the mobile home park was installed because of the curve it is near, and recent collision history of a vehicle going down that slope. Two other locations, nearer the bottom of the hill, were chosen because of the combination of the long steep slope and the water hazards at the bottom.”

I had seen what looked like storm damage repair at the sight at which guardrail was installed on both sides of the road and guessed that emergency management money might have paid for that, but I guessed wrong.

Jeff says, “The uphill location, though not as steep as others, has a storm water device in it which allows water levels to rise. The combined slope with the possibility of standing water put this location on a higher priority than others.”

The in basket: “Goolsby Snitworthy, who drives along Southworth Drive daily” (really, that’s what he wants to be called), writes, “Perhaps you could have your county road contacts explain to the folks why, as part of the reconstruction of Southworth Drive between the Harper Dock and Olympiad Drive, guard rails have been added along sections where they were not before and removed from other sections where they were before.

“It appears illogical to we non-road experts, but I suppose the county experts have what they think is a logical explanation for the guard rail changes.  I am certain others are puzzled by this development,” he said.

The out basket: I, too, was surprised that most of the project’s frontage, up against which the tide laps at high tide, has no guard rail, including in places that used to have it.

And, yes, the county does have an explanation.

Jeff Shea, county traffic engineer, says not all the planned guardrail has been installed yet but not every place that had it before will have it replaced.

Cones along the waterside shoulder from the Harper Dock south to Cambridge Road show where guardrail has yet to be installed, 270 feet of it. They’ve decided the need to bolt that guardrail to the seawall requires a special design being done now. That will add about $40,000 to the work, says Senior Program Manager Tina Nelson in public works..

“Guardrail itself is a hazard to motorists, especially motorcycles and bicycles,” Jeff said. “Guardrail is generally placed because it presents less hazard than the obstacle behind it,” in this case, water.

“Past guardrail locations do not necessarily dictate replacing a guardrail, if it is removed,” he said. The only other stretch of guardrail in the completed project, nearer Olympiad Drive, is required by the combination of the height of the rock wall behind it and the potential depth of water there, said Tina Nelson.

“We’ve researched our records and, other than vehicles that have hit the guardrail at the curve at the dock, there are no reported collisions with the guardrail previously placed there,” Jeff said.

“Environmental regulations and restrictions limit what can be done at that location. We are evaluating other methods, including barrier curbs and/or signs and markings, that can help delineate the road edge.”

One such change was approved by the county commissioners on Nov. 8. A suggestion of Commissioner Charolotte Garrido, it provides $52,352 to paint the shoulders brownish red when weather allows in the spring, says Tina. There is anecdotal evidence the visual impact of painted shoulders can slow traffic, she said. Neighbors who fought the widening often said they think it will increase speeds there.

Tina says even with the added cost of the painted shoulders, special guardrail design and reinforcement of the sea wall, the project will come in around $800,000, about $200,000 less than originally expected.