The in basket: Keri Heber was stuck in traffic on Bremerton’s 11th Street Oct. 30, caught with other drivers behind someone waiting to turn left onto Naval, while the westbound lanes were reduced from three to one.

“While commuting home at about 5 p.m. westbound on 11th,” she wrote, ‘I found myself in a backup, all the way to High Street, because left turns are still allowed from 11th to Naval. Since there is only one lane, any car turning left and waiting for westbound traffic to clear will hold

up the eastbound traffic. And then the backup gets worse for those of us patiently waiting, as cars come across High Street in the right lane to

jump into the waiting line.

“Why are left turns still allowed onto Naval?” She asked. “There are plenty of streets prior to Naval, such as High, where left turns could have been routed.

The out basket: Bill Davis, project engineer for the sewer main work that caused the reduction to one lane, says, “We discussed whether to restrict the turn from westbound 11^th to southbound Naval extensively, taking into consideration that traffic would likely back up on 11^th Street at times.

“Ultimately, our decision was informed by our experience of the traffic revision at  6^th and Warren earlier in the project, where we received several complaints because we restricted turns at that location.  Based on our experience at that intersection, we decided to minimize restrictions for this temporary revision at 11^th and Naval and continue to allow the movement.

“Unfortunately we’ve been delayed with getting the intersection back open because we are unable to asphalt pave during heavy rain,” he said.

The in basket: Gary Reed asked on the Road Warrior blog at kitsapsun.com, “What is happening at 11th and Naval (in Bremerton)? Shortly after the sewer work was paved over there seemed to be an odor in the area. Now I’m wondering if there was a leak in the pipework since it appears the area is being dug up.

“If there was a leak and it is being redone, who pays for that rework? I would hope we taxpayers are not footing the bill for repairing the poor workmanship.”

The out basket: No poor workmanship involved, says Gunnar Fridriksson of the city street engineers, just a logistical decision to get 11th Street open to traffic as soon as possible..

“It was not the finish paving,” he said. “Sequencing the work for construction of the new main, keeping the existing main in service, and re-opening 11th to traffic as soon as possible required the contractor to re-open the intersection to make final connections.

“While new main was laid from Naval to Montgomery on 11^th Street, a section of the line in Naval Avenue from 11^th to 13^th was reused by placing a cure-in-place pipe liner into it.  I believe this is the source of the odor your reader mentioned.

“The liner is saturated with an epoxy and pulled into place in the old main.  There it is filled with hot water to expand it and cause it to adhere to the existing pipe.  During this process, the new liner will emit a fiberglass-resin type of odor which is a bit stinky, but not dangerous.”

The in basket: Robert Sherwood of Bremerton e-mails to say, “I see drilling equipment in operation next to the railroad bridge in Gorst. Soil samples, I assume.  

“Is a new railroad bridge in the plans for more lanes of traffic for Highway 3?  The backups cannot be tolerated anymore because of  this 1940’s era bridge.” 

The out basket: The backups will have to be tolerated longer. The work Robert sees is a project to bore a hole beneath the railroad tracks through which the final piece of a sewer line will be run.

The sewer line will link new homes on Anderson Hill on the other side of Gorst to the Bremerton sewer plant. All the green pipe we were seeing alongside Highway 3 last winter, now all underground, was part of that work.

Project Engineer Brad Ginn of the city said the boring job as been stalled by a series of large rocks that have required the contractor, D&D Boring, to send men into the casing to do hand mining. They are about two-thirds of the way through and hope to find easier material to bore through. But “the last 30 feet have been constant rock,” he said. 

The work is hard to spot, because even those workers not in the casing are down in the hole that accesses it. 

The widening of Highway 3 from Gorst to Bremerton, which would require a new railroad bridge, was one recommendation of a corridor study just completed this spring. But that’s advanced planning and any work would be years, if not decades, away.

The in basket: I noticed the big electronic sign warning of the closure of the Highway 304 ramp over Highway 3 west of Bremerton for sewer work the first four nights of this week, and decided I needed to learn more about that sewer project. 

Bremerton City Engineer Mike Mecham and Brad Ginn, his project manager for the work, filled me in.

The out basket: Neither man was on the job site these nights, so didn’t know if the ramp actually closed all four nights. They did know that little was done there Monday and Wednesday, so they suspect the closure didn’t occur then. 

In any event, the fact less than expected was done this week means there’ll be two ramp closures at night next week, nights to be determined. The detour will be the same, up to the Loxie Eagans interchange and back.

The long green pipe sections we’ve seen lying on the highway shoulder for months ultimately will be put in the ground by Stan Palmer Construction, contractor on the $3 1/2 million job. But it won’t require ditching on the shoulder between Bremerton and Gorst as it did in and on the other side of Gorst. 

The city has an abandoned 24-inch water main running along Highway 3. The sewer pipe, 8 to 10 inches wide, will be slipped into the water main which will serve as a conduit. The highway will be reduced to one lane westbound during the work, for worker safety, but it will be done between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m.

The contractor will have to bore beneath the railroad tracks for the sewer main. 

The city hopes the sewer lines will be completed by April.

The work where traffic from the direction of Belfair enters Highway 16 to head toward Port Orchard and Tacoma is completed, except for paving restoration, the two men said, making that short on-ramp less scary.

Work has begun along Highway 16 near Anderson Hill Road on the pump station that will force the effluent, to use the genteel term, to the city treatment plant next to the 304 ramp. 

There will be no manholes, as it’s a pressure line. But it will have stubs that in time will serve the Sherman Heights area, the Gorst urban growth area and the small  part of Bremerton on the south side of Sinclair Inlet. That first will include the 200-plus homes in a new development named Bayside. Port Orchard will be providing sewer service to the existing homes up on that hill, Mecham said, including McCormick Woods. The two cities’ systems will abut one another. 

If Bremerton wins the right to serve the South Kitsap Industrial Area, this sewer line would provide only interim service there, they said. Another line would be needed to service SKIA as it grows.