BREMERTON — The Warren Avenue bridge will look a little different in the near future.
With plans to narrow the driving lanes and widen pedestrian lanes, Bremerton’s Managing Engineer Jerry Hauth said there are two goals with the project: providing more space for pedestrians and slowing down drivers.
“The bridge was designed and built, I think just shortly after the Roman Empire collapsed,” Hauth joked.
Basically, the bridge is very wide and very big.
“People drive too fast on things like that,” he said.
Hauth said he’s spoken with police officers who write tickets to drivers going over the bridge; he said one officer told him, “I don’t write (tickets) unless they’re doing 50 mph or more.”
“If the bridge were a little narrower for the travel lanes, people would feel a little more restrictive and probably drive a little slower,” Hauth said.
After all, the speed limit on the bridge is 35 mph; it’s 30 mph on either side of the bridge.
The other goal is to give pedestrians more space.
“If we made the barrier in the middle smaller and made the lanes narrower, there may be an opportunity to increase the sidewalks on either side to make it more mobile for pedestrians, particularly the folks in wheelchairs,” Hauth said. “It’s not at all ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant now.”
The City of Bremerton is currently in the concept stage of the project; the Public Works and Utilities department will “introduce and discuss the pedestrian improvements proposed” in a public meeting, 5-6:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 4. at the Public Works Building, 100 Oyster Bay Ave. N., according to the press release.
“If we’re talking about altering the structure of the surface of the bridge … and everybody hates our concept except us, that’s not going to be good,” Hauth said.
The meeting will cover the scope, design process, funding sources and schedule. The city will apply for grants to cover the project. If the current plans are approved, the budget will be “somewhere under $10 million at present,” Hauth said, which he said is the “economy package.”
Hauth added that the application process for grants will need to get started as soon as possible; though some deadlines aren’t for a few months, “inevitably, you use as much time as you got,” Hauth said.
The meeting “will give the community an opportunity to vet the ideas we thought were good ideas,” he said.
If interested in learning more about the plans, or to provide input, the meeting will be 5-6:30 p.m. Feb. 4 at 100 Oyster Bay Ave. N. For more information, contact Jerry Hauth, Managing Enginner, at 360-473-2354 or jerry.hauth@ci.bremerton.wa.us.
