BREMERTON – An idea to build a roundabout at the west end of the Manette Bridge has, well, come back around.
The city’s public works department is pursuing federal funding for a $4.8 million project to install a traffic circle at the bridge’s intersection with Washington Avenue in 2022, as well as add wider sidewalks and bike lanes from the bridge to the intersection of 11th Street and Pacific Avenue.
From his office on the sixth floor of the Norm Dicks Government Center, Mayor Greg Wheeler says he watches daily as traffic bottlenecks at the bridge during rush hour. A roundabout would allow those crossing the bridge from northbound Washington Avenue – roughly 80 percent of vehicles, according to public works – to turn right while only needing to yield.
“By the time we’re done fixing this up, it’s going to help improve our quality of life,” Wheeler said.
The roundabout was deemed too costly to construct three years ago when Washington Avenue was rebuilt between the bridge and Sixth Street, which included taking out a right-turn lane onto the bridge from Washington to make room for a wider sidewalk. But city engineers had included some planning work for it within the project, in the event, additional funding ever came available.
That time is now, city leaders say, given the criteria for the federal grant funds.
“This is the project in the city that fits the money best,” Chal Martin, the city’s public works director, noting it would reduce air pollution, a key requirement. “We cannot let millions of dollars go. Our residents need this investment in their community.”
But the project has critics. At a meeting earlier this month, two members of the Bremerton City Council questioned the need for the roundabout and whether the project should be the city’s highest priority.
Councilwoman Leslie Daugs wondered how the project ended up as the one engineers focused on while the city keeps a list of some 40 others that might work.
“There’s nothing else on the … list that would meet the same criteria?” for the grant, she asked.
Nothing with as good a chance to get the funds, replied city engineer Tom Knuckey.
If successful, the city would need to come up with about $650,000 in funds to match the grant, from the federal government’s surface transportation program. The “worst-case scenario,” Knuckey said, was that the city could cover the cost with proceeds from excise taxes on real estate sales. But city officials are hopeful they could apply for other grants to cover the rest of the balance.
Daugs and Councilman Tony Hillman voted against pursuing the funding. But four other members present voted for it.
It would mark the third time since 2011 that the intersection would be under construction, a fact pointed out by local resident Terry Fessner at the council meeting. “We cannot continue to go ahead and keep on redoing stuff we’ve done in the past. There’s other streets that need your attention.”
City officials had eyed another project for federal funding: an expansion of pedestrian access on the Warren Avenue Bridge. However, Martin said the project was “too risky,” to attempt to get the federal funds. The roundabout was the fallback option.
Former Bremerton Councilman Dino Davis railed against the plan to the council, noting the cost of the roundabout has greatly escalated, a fact Knuckey said was due in part to the rising cost of concrete. Davis also felt the project was perhaps only kept alive by former City Councilman Jerry McDonald, who represented the area from 2013-2017.
McDonald had repeatedly advocated for the roundabout, he acknowledged Monday.
“I was promised it would happen,” said McDonald, noting without the roundabout, the current traffic configuration “plugs up the whole thing.”
