BREMERTON — Why did the chicken cross the bridge?

The same reason it crossed the road: to get to the other side.

Of course, if that bridge is the Warren Avenue Bridge, and someone else was crossing it in a wheelchair going in the opposite direction, the chicken may be out of luck, because the pedestrian lanes just aren’t wide enough.

“The bridge is a third of a mile long, which is a long way if you meet somebody halfway on the bridge and you need to cross,” said Thomas Knuckey, Bremerton city engineer.

A public meeting was held Feb. 4 to discuss the future for the Warren Avenue bridge. The city wants to widen pedestrian pathways to make them compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act regulations. As it is right now, the pathways are less than 4 feet wide, with an even narrower entrance and exit to the pedestrian paths. Crowded enough for people walking across, but throw in a bicycle or wheelchair and it becomes extremely difficult to navigate.

“We’ve seen people crawl up on the hand rails to cross, we’ve seen people lift bicycles over their shoulders,” Knuckey said.

To be ADA compliant, pedestrian pathways need to be at least 4-feet wide, with a 5-foot-wide passing area every 200 feet.

No plans are finalized yet, and Public Works and Utilities Department Director Chal Martin said “nothing is off the table,” so they city turned to the public to get their input.

The meeting started with a simple presentation to share the facts. The bridge has four, 12-foot-wide traffic lanes, with a center divide and two narrow pedestrian pathways on either side. Currently, the simplest plan for widening the sidewalks involves removing the center barrier, making the driving lanes 11-feet wide, adding bicycle paths on either side and slightly widening the walkways. This would cost about $7.8 million dollars, for which the city would apply for federal and local grants.

“We would like to improve pedestrian and bicycle circulation, ideally without revising the bridge structure to keep our cost down,” Knuckey said. “The only way that we improve the walkability of the bridge for all users is by creating what we’re calling a couplet.”

Couplets are two one-way lanes next to each other, meaning one of the pathways would be for north-bound foot traffic only, and the other would be south-bound only.

Some audience members expressed concerns over the plans.

“Last month, there was a semi-tractor trailer that got wedged into the center concrete barrier,” one audience member said. “If that center barrier had not been there, there’s a potential that the truck could have gone into the oncoming lane.”

Another audience member, who had an artificial leg and said she sometimes uses a wheelchair to get around, said the pathways don’t stop her from crossing the bridge. She said making the pathways wider probably wouldn’t increase foot traffic.

“The bridge, as it is now, if I wanted to use … a wheelchair, it would not impede me,” she said. “I would use it. (If you widen the bridge) it’s not going to change if people really need to use it or really want to use it.”

Another wheelchair user said widening the pathways wouldn’t change the biggest obstacle: the length of the bridge. He said electric wheelchairs have a limited range, and his can make it up onto the bridge, across and back, but pretty much no further before his chair loses power. Which brings up another goal the city has: Knuckey said they want to build pedestrian services up on either side of the bridge, to make it more accessible.

But this wasn’t the only idea floated at the meeting. Others included an asymmetric bridge design, with an extra-wide pedestrian path on one side of the bridge, for foot traffic going both ways, and no pedestrian path on the other side. Doing this would, of course, mean there’d need to be connections to either side of the road at both ends of the bridge for pedestrians.

Knuckey said the east side of the bridge would be more convenient due to the on-ramp for cars on the west side making the pedestrian path challenging, but Martin and audience members alike preferred the pedestrian path to be on the west side, and not just because of the “prettier view,” as one commenter put it.

“When you’re on the east side,” Martin said, “everybody’s got their foot on the gas going up the hill. So it’s much quieter and pleasant for pedestrians on the west side, where everybody’s coasting going down the hill.”

One lofty idea mentioned at the meeting was a pedestrian-only bridge. Either it’d be an entirely new bridge built for foot traffic or “for the Warren Avenue bridge to stack a pedestrian facility on top of the thing,” Knuckey said.

“We have thought about that. I think that would be very attractive for folks, too,” he said.

Of course, that would mean higher costs, and needing to reinforce the bridge supports to accommodate the extra weight, as would widening the existing bridge.

Funding is something the city will have to pursue regardless, however. Knuckey said some funding could come from the National Complete Streets Coalition, which “promotes the development and implementation of policies and professional practices that ensure streets are safe for people of all ages and abilities, balance the needs of different modes and support local land uses, economies, cultures and natural environments,” according to the website, www.smartgrowthamerica.org/complete-streets.

Otherwise, there’s grant money from federal and state sources the city would pursue.

“There are more sources of funding to pursue than what was presented here,” Knuckey said.

“We’re pretty good at chasing money in Bremerton,” he added. “We’ve been very successful for getting funding for capital improvements in the city. We’ll be looking at all funding available.”

One thing both Knuckey and Martin stressed throughout the meeting is nothing is “off the table” when it comes to fixing the Warren Avenue bridge — with one exception: there will not be a toll.

To learn more about the planning process for the Warren Avenue bridge or to share your thoughts on the issue, email the managing engineer, Jerry Hauth, at jerry.hauth@ci.bremerton.wa.us.