Road Warrior

The in basket: Bob Arper asks if the county or state hase “decided to eliminate the merge lane that was originally on northbound Ridgetop Boulevard where the Waaga Way  westbound exit intersects.

“It appears that is the case,” he said,  “since I have noticed all the other white lines on Ridgetop have been painted in but not the line for the merge lane. Can someone tell me why it was not done?”

The out basket: Jeff Shay, traffic engineer for Kitsap County, says “Yes, we intentionally let the lane line wear out. When the state redid the left-turn lane under the Highway 303 underpass, it aligned the through lane so it is almost dead center on the northbound lane line on Ridgetop Boulevard. It was impossible to realign the lane, so to avoid collisions between merging traffic and the through lane, we eliminated the line, making it a single wide lane.”