The folks who seem to be bending over backwards in terms of making driving on State Route 305 a living hell are coming up short when it comes to keeping motorists updated with the goings on.
The extensive road widening project got underway this month and with it headaches. And plenty of them.
Some are unavoidable, others are as easy to see as the folks in orange vests, flipping the slow/stop signs and wishing someone would invent “kickstand pants†so they could take a load off their weary feet.
It’s the avoidable ones that need to be addressed.
This is a huge project. Its magnitude makes the renovation and widening of Viking Avenue a few years back look like a simple overlay in terms of work and impact on motorists.
State Route 305 is Poulsbo’s lifeline — providing the most direct routes that the city has with Seattle, Suquamish and Kingston, not to mention SR 3.
Furthermore, work just getting underway.
If communication problems are already popping up, one has to wonder if they will persist through November.
That’s November 2007. Yeah, ouch.
Burying their collective heads in the sand, or pile of gravel as the case may be, contractors and subcontractors on the project have already given the motoring public two unwelcome surprises that have resulted in delays.
This has to end.
Last minute decisions? They’ve got months on this one and have had years to plan it out. Besides, the surprises were hardly the result of unforeseeable circumstances.
While the Washington State Department of Transportation has sent a mass mailed postcard describing the Aug. 25-28 closure of SR 305 between Liberty and Forest Rock Hill (for anyone unfamiliar with these by name, they run east to west at the Poulsbo Fire Station and Central Market respectively). For anyone unfamiliar with east to west, consult a compass or that big, bright orb in the sky). Poulsbo’s 10th Avenue will serve as the detour route.
Notice has been given, and this is a good thing.
When proper communication occurs, motorists can plan ahead. When it doesn’t — as was the case this week and last — they get stuck in traffic with no way out. You may be cursing the Herald up and down, blaming this publication for not staying on top of the situation, but this paper is not immune to these last-minute changes, either.
Our staff gets stuck in traffic, too. That is when our personal helicopter isn’t whisking us away to Hansville, Kingston, Suquamish and all points in between.
The bottom line here is that improved transportation relies heavily on smooth communication and that in order for the folks responsible for the work on SR 305 to get the results they want, they have to give the public what they deserve: correct information.
The Herald is doing its best to provide it, whether via www.northkitsapherald.com or within its pages, and is asking the questions, but getting “advance notice†of 10 hours or so makes this effort difficult.
Hopefully, this behavior will change and November 2007 will be here sooner than we all think.
