POULSBO — After three years of planning, the City of Poulsbo still doesn’t have all the kinks ironed out over the Liberty Bay Trail.
But it may soon be too late to do anything about it.
Crews from Gig Harbor’s Sound Excavation have been working on the 2-mile pedestrian route along Fjord Drive and Lemolo Shore Drive since early May. During the 30-working-day contract, sidewalks and handicap accessible ramps are being added on the upland side, while pavement is being added on the shoreline side to create a 6-foot walking trail.
Senior Field Inspector Mike Lund said excavation to create the proper grading for the trail is nearly complete and the paving of the last leg of the trail from Home Court to Johnson Road is expected to take place soon. He added that the June 8 completion date is a reasonable goal.
“It’s coming right along,” he commented.
But it is just this paving that continues to irk members of the Lemolo Citizens Club. Since the beginning planning stages of the trail, the group has been voicing concerns about the project’s design. Though the trail is intended for pedestrian use, group members worry that the speeding they already see along the scenic route will only increase once it’s completed.
“I’m not sure that all along they haven’t viewed this as a road widening project,” commented Kathy Byrne-Barrantes of the Lemolo Citizens Group and Liberty Bay Foundation.
City staff had earlier considered adding a curb, deflectors or other raised markings along the fog line between the vehicle and pedestrian lanes for extra safety. Lund explained that they were recently told such additions were not allowed. Instead, a wide, white stripe will be painted along the fog line for bicyclist and pedestrian safety.
“You can’t put anything to separate in the right lane according to the Manual for Uniform Traffic Development. It’s basically the law,” Lund explained.
The Liberty Bay Foundation is also concerned that the trail’s addition will further harm the eroding hillsides above the beach and send more polluted stormwater into Liberty Bay. After a recent survey, the foundation believes that 17-23 of its previous plantings along Lemolo Shore Drive have been moved by construction crews — something they were told would not happen. Byrne-Barrantes said this is a significant number because some of the plantings in the area were done as early as 2000 in order to help the sloughing upland portion. Some of the plantings were funded through Department of Ecology grant money.
“That’s what we got grant money for, to help that shoreline,” she commented. “But it’s not just DOE money, it’s money we’ve raised and in-kind donations that people have given us.”
Byrne-Barrantes added that when her group received the final plans for the trail, Lemolo Citizens Group President Richard Best reviewed them and said that they were against the biological evaluation plans for the project. That section stated that stormwater runoff from the added pavement would run through at least 60 feet of vegetation before reaching Liberty Bay waters.
“In some sections, there’s just nothing left,” Byrne-Barrantes said.
Councilwoman Kathryn Quade mentioned these concerns at theMay 26 meeting of the city council’s Public Works Committee. Quade was recently out walking the trail, as were representatives from the DOE, which issued the shoreline permits for the construction. The citizens club has asked Ecology to review the current state of the trail construction and reconsider the issuance of permits.
“I’m still getting complaints about the way the trail is done,” Quade told Interim Public Works Director John Stephenson. “They’re still not happy out in the county.”
But Stephenson countered that the DOE is happy with the work that’s being done. He pointed to the stipulations of the permits point by point and said that they’re being followed “precisely.”
“We are squeaky clean, I’m telling you,” Stephenson said. “We’re absolutely squeaky clean with our permits.”
With mere days left before the trail is supposed to be completed, the Lemolo group is still holding out hope that the project may be put on hold for further consideration.
“If they left it, we could remediate some of the soils and actually gain some land back because they’ve done cutting (into the asphalt),” Byrne-Barrantes said.
However, stopping the project would not be a completely clear-cut option. Lund said he’s received a great deal of positive feedback about the upcoming completion as well. The pathway had long been championed by residents along the 2-mile route who wanted a safer way to travel by foot or bicycle.
“Everybody, I’d say 99 percent, have been absolutely loving it,” Lund said of neighbors’ reactions. “Everybody who walks by is just ecstatic. There’s bicyclists and runners who use that every day. They can’t wait for it to be done.”