Tag Archives: Veneta

Kiwanis Park street alignment annoys city resident

The in basket: A Fourth Street resident in West Bremerton who signed herself “a grumpy constituent” wrote, “I live on 4th between Naval and Hewitt. The bulb-outs on the north and south sides of Fourth Street near Kiwanis Park (between Veneta and Hewitt) still extend dangerously out into the road to the point that there is no two-way traffic. Someone always pulls over, panicked, to let the other pass.

“There is still no painted center line (perhaps a center line would be enough to let drivers know it was safe to turn it back into a two-way street). There is still no lighting or iridescent marking on the curbs to let you know the bulb-outs are there in the dark and in the fog.

“I almost did a head-on on my way in or almost smacked into the bulb-out at Fourth and Veneta (going east), or almost smacked into the first bulb-out on Fourth going west on my way home the night before.”

The out basket: Jerry Hauth, Bremerton’s new managing engineer for streets, thanked grumpy constituent for bringing this to his attention.

“I am relatively new with the city,” he said, “and I wanted a little time to get familiar with the circumstances out there.

“I was on-site this week and I saw the large bulb-outs at the pedestrian crossings. We measured the road width at the bulb-outs and found that it is wide enough to allow two cars to pass safely. But, it is much narrower than the rest of the road with the hopes it will slow traffic for safety purposes.

“You may have noticed that there was no paint striping done this year. The city and the county are still trying to work out the wording on our interagency agreement. We need to have this in place – prior to the county painting our centerlines. Hopefully, we will have this resolved for next year.

“In the interim, at the location we are discussing, I was thinking that a few reflective buttons along the centerline in the area of the bulb-outs would enhance the visibility and may provide the comfort for those drivers not familiar with the area. In addition, a reflective plastic post or reflective markers, in the planter near the edge of the bulb-outs, could help define and delineate the bulb-outs also.

“Let me see what I can do to address your concerns,”he told her.

A pair of Fifth Street curiosities and roundabout reminder

The in basket: I was putting along eastbound on Fifth Street in Bremerton recently when my wife in the passenger seat noticed that I had given no indication that I had seen a stop sign at Veneta Avenue.

“Stop sign,” she said, and it was a good thing. I had not seen it and was surprised it was there. It was new. How new I didn’t know. Had I been running it and its mate on the other side of the intersection, or had I just not been on Fifth Street for a long time? There were no orange flags or signs indicating a change in traffic control.

Thusly moved to curiosity, I wondered a couple blocks later at Chester Avenue about the traffic calming island put in the middle of the intersection a couple years ago. Traffic was light and turning left in front of the island would have been easier than going around it to turn left. I wondered if that would be legal.

So I asked.

The out basket: Gunnar Fridriksson of the city engineers said he’d been curious about the four-way stop created at Fifth and Veneta  himself, and learned that it was all done months ago in response to a neighborhood petition. It seems like a good move, given all the foot traffic around the Catholic school and church there.

“It was reviewed by engineering in April of last

year,” Gunnar said, “and a work order to maintenance sent out on May 5.  The new

signs and traffic revision signs were installed shortly thereafter,along with swapping the lenses in the flashing light from yellow to red.

“After the 30-day installation period passed, all traffic revision signs were removed.”

He and Lt. Pete Fisher of Bremerton police said it is not legal to turn in front of a traffic island, any more than it would be to turn left and not go around a roundabout . You have to go around.

Gunnar asked that we use this as an opportunity to revisit another element of driving roundabouts.

“We are receiving complaints that some

motorists coming across the (new) bridge are ignoring the Yield sign when entering the new Manette roundabout,” he said.

“We would like to try and educate before going to enforcement,” he said.

As I noted in a December Road Warrior, the construction of the roundabout in Manette has changed the rules for right of way at that end of the bridge. Drivers exiting the bridge in Manette no longer have the right of way over other traffic flows and must yield to anyone already in the roundabout. That’s the rule for all roundabouts.

At the Fifth Street traffic circle, stop signs control the side street and drivers at the stop signs must yield to traffic on the through street.