State Route 305 widening project is set to begin

Published 3:00 pm Saturday, July 22, 2006

POULSBO — Even as the State Route 305 Force Main installation nears completion, the first phase of the highway widening project is set to begin July 31.

The $14.9 project, which will expand SR 305 from two to four lanes from Bond Road to the south city limits of Poulsbo, is expected to be finished by the fall of 2008.

With the fish window opening Oct. 15, City Engineer Andrzej Kasiniak said contractor Stan Palmer Construction of Port Orchard will be rerouting portions of Dogfish Creek and installing culverts on SR 305 between Forest Rock Lane and Liberty Road as well as on Lincoln Road during that timeframe.

“Once the fish window opens, he can’t work below the high water mark of the creek,” Kasiniak said.

The “window” is the period of time in which adult salmon migrate through local rivers and streams to spawn and when juvenile salmon return to the waters of the Puget Sound.

Despite being an extensive undertaking, the only highway closures during this year’s construction season are scheduled to take place during the week of Aug. 18-27, when the highway is closed between Forest Rock Lane and Liberty Road.

Traffic will be rerouted to Forest Rock Lane or Liberty Road and onto 10th Avenue during the first closure, which will be from 8:30 p.m. Aug. 18 to 5 a.m. Aug. 20.

The highway will be closed in the same location again from 8:30 p.m. Aug. 25 to 5 a.m. Aug. 27. The detours will be the same.

The Poulsbo Police Department will provide officers to help facilitate traffic flow during the weekend closure, Kasiniak said.

While the highway will be closed for one weekend, Lincoln Road and Iverson Way are scheduled to be shut down completely from Sept. 11 to Oct. 11 between 10th and 8th avenues.

Both lanes of SR 305 will remain open during the monthlong closure, but drivers will not be able to turn onto Lincoln or Iverson from the highway. Traffic will be routed to 10th Avenue, but the city is exploring traffic control options on Caldart Avenue as well.

“We may have a four-way stop on Caldart Avenue and Lincoln or we may have an officer at the intersection for two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon,” Kasiniak said.

The city’s traffic modeling program showed most of the congestion pressure will be on 10th Avenue and Liberty Road, but Caldart Avenue and Hostmark Street will feel some residual impacts as well, he said.

After Oct. 15, crews will be building a retaining wall on the north side of Hollywood Video along the highway to about 100 feet south of Bond Road, Kasiniak said.

Poulsbo Police Chief Jeff Doran said his department is ready to do its part in maintaining traffic flow during the project, but doesn’t expect any major problems.

With the highway widening project in its beginning stages, work has continued throughout the month on the SR 305 paving project from Poulsbo’s south city limits to the Bainbridge Island ferry terminal.

Currently, crews are working on pavement repair at night with alternating lanes of traffic and have already moved onto Bainbridge Island, said Washington State Department of Transportation project manager John McNutt.

“I expect paving repair to last until the end of the month, and I’m expecting to see some paving the first week of August,” McNutt said.

Since weather has not hindered work on the project McNutt said he expects the paving project to be far enough away from the widening project that it won’t really impact traffic flows in Poulsbo.