POULSBO — Poulsbo welcomed its latest advancement in public transit March 31 with the groundbreaking for Kitsap Transit’s newest center.
“It’s been a long time coming,” said John Clauson, executive director of Kitsap Transit, noting the project has been more than eight years in the making.
“We are in desperate need of park-and-rides here in Poulsbo,” he said.
The new Kitsap Transit facility, now under construction on Viking Way just north of Highway 305, will be much more than one of the largest park-and-rides in the area.
“This project includes 265 parking spots and a five-bay transit center for our buses,” Clauson said. “It’s going to include a concrete-paved parking facility for our bus operation with 53 stalls for our buses. It will included a fueling and bus-washing facility, as well as (video) security enhancements.”
Clauson addressed a crowd of city, county and state officials, and representatives of Congressman Derek Kilmer’s office, as well as members of the community. Among them was Mayor Becky Erickson, who spoke about the need for the facility in Poulsbo’s expanding landscape.
“Poulsbo is growing, population-wise, at about 3.4 percent per year, and our employment is growing at about 2 percent per year,” Erickson said. “With that kind of development pressure, this is important for our community.”
Erickson noted that Poulsbo’s existing park-and-rides are often full, including the location at Gateway Church on Hostmark Street, the busiest park-and-ride in Kitsap Transit’s system.
“We need to have this place to accommodate what we are becoming,” Erickson said. “We are growing into a very dense community depending on multi-modal connections, which is bicycles, pedestrian pathways and transit.”
Construction for the project could last anywhere from 15-18 months, according to Steffani Lillie, service and capital development director for Kitsap Transit.
The initial price tag for the construction project comes in at $9,398,730, but that cost will likely rise after funding for the fueling and bus-washing facility is added.
Kitsap Transit already has an office building on the site. That will be incorporated into the site plan.
