Bainbridge Islanders celebrated when a local elected official declared a contentious road construction project over before it started, but they may have cheered too soon.

The state Department of Transportation confirmed May 2 that the roundabout project at the intersection of High School Road and Highway 305 will proceed as scheduled, with the pre-design process set to kick off this summer.

On May 1, BI Mayor Ashley Mathews retracted her statement posted on social media April 29, in which she shared a brief comment about the project’s cancellation and encouraged residents to drive safely — information she received from 23rd district representative Greg Nance in a text correspondence, Mathews explained.

Many community members vocally protested the roundabout project when it was first announced in October, and hearing that it was cancelled seemed important to share with constituents, she said.

“The safety of our community members is paramount. WSDOT says safety improvements are needed at this intersection. They believe a roundabout is the best solution…” Mathews said. “These are tough times for everyone and we are all doing the best we can. I jumped the gun with what I thought was good news for our community and learned a valuable lesson. That lesson: wait and see. I look forward to the community input portion of the process and continuing to work in partnership with WSDOT.”

Representative Greg Nance released the following statement to the Bainbridge Island Review.

“There have been a number of serious accidents at the intersection, so I’ve requested WSDOT leaders to explore ‘Low Cost Enhancements’ to bolster safety, including prohibiting right turns on red, reducing the speed limit, and installing cautionary signage and rumble strips to slow down vehicles. These cost a small fraction of a new roundabout and can keep neighbors safe,” Nance said.

Additionally, Nance said he has recommended to House Transportation Chair Jake Fey (D-Tacoma) that “we invest these dollars into other key transportation priorities like bolstering reliable ferry service, building sidewalks for Safe Routes to School, or addressing urgent safety needs on Kitsap’s other state highways.”

WSDOT confirmed the roundabout project will continue as funding has been included in the transportation budget, per WSDOT Olympic Region communications manager Cara Mitchell. The roundabout project is estimated at about $4 million, Mitchell said.

Before an official design or construction timeline is released, WSDOT will solicit comments from community members to provide input on the intersection’s safety needs and any necessary “complete streets” improvements, an approach to urban design that includes infrastructure for all users, not just vehicles.

“[WSDOT] should definitely make the intersection as safe as they see fit,” Mathews said.

Upgrades to the High School Road intersection have been on WSDOT’s to-do list for at least eight years. A 2017 joint assessment by Kitsap Transit, the Suquamish Tribe, Bainbridge and Poulsbo city management and Kitsap County found that the intersection’s high traffic volume, coupled with rising incidents of crashes and injury, made it a priority for safety improvements. The 2017 study recommended improved lane channelization to clarify the flow of travel, but since then, greater safety needs have arisen.

WSDOT data says seven fatal crashes have occured on all roads on BI between 2015 and 2025. Two of these incidents occurred on Hwy 305, but only one at the High School Road intersection. Washington State Patrol, on the other hand, recorded 46 incidents, including crashes involving serious injuries and fatal crashes, as well as minor crashes with no reported injuries, on 305 and High School Road between 2013 and May 2, 2025.

In the interim, Mitchell said WSDOT is conducting a speed study along all of Hwy 305 with no current completion date announced.

“The signal at this intersection has pedestrian countdown timing indications, and we recently installed ADA push buttons. We installed Leading Pedestrian Intervals along the corridor. This is a feature where the signal gives the pedestrian a six-second lead time to begin walking across the intersection before a vehicle gets a green,” she said.

Mathews noted that as the city prepares to certify the Winslow Subarea Plan and the island-wide Comprehensive Plan, the High School Road area will likely support more housing as the island’s population grows, which likely means more traffic.

“We talk a lot about reimagining the High School Road district, so it would be really beneficial to be able to plan these things simultaneously with WSDOT as a partner,” said Mathews. “It should be a conversation that we all have collaboratively.”

The island’s most recent WSDOT project along Hwy 305, a pair of modern roundabouts less than a mile apart at NE West Port Madison Road and Ada’s Will Lane, cost about $17 million.

About $40.3 million is set aside for safety and mobility improvements along the entire stretch of the highway between the BI ferry terminal and Hostmark Street in Poulsbo, which includes both the High School Road project and an additional roundabout at Hwy 305 and Day Road.

“This project will replace the traffic signal [at Day Road] with a roundabout and improve access to the Park-n-Ride. Kitsap Transit is participating in the park-n-ride improvements,” Mitchell wrote in an email. “The current funding available will allow for completion of design and right of way. Construction will require additional funding.”

In addition to traffic updates, 34 fish passage barrier removal projects will progress in greater Kitsap County, Mitchell added: five in the Gorst vicinity and 29 along the county’s western and northern highways. Only one may occur on Bainbridge Island, right below the planned High School Road roundabout.

A 2017 study by the West Sound Watersheds Council ranked BI’s Ravine Creek, which travels parallel to Hwy 305 down to Eagle Harbor, to be a second-tier priority for fish passage restoration out of four scoring tiers. City manager Blair King shared that WSDOT confirmed its intent to work on a fish passage project in Ravine Creek just south of the Hwy 305 and High School Road intersection in an October announcement, but it’s not just the state’s project.

“There is a part of this project that directly involves the city. Upstream of the WSDOT project, the waterway flows under High School Road through a city culvert. Looking at the fish passage project comprehensively, WSDOT would like the city to budget and construct a project to address the city’s piped stormwater under High School Road,” King said.

Conducting both projects at once may prove to be a challenge, Mathews said.

“[It’s] a lot of money that I still don’t see reflected in the budget. The roundabout is only one part of this … I remain skeptical that the funds are available. The last thing we want is to have a project begun that can’t be finished due to lack of funding,” she said.