If you thought the Madison Avenue construction was bad, just wait until 2027. High School Road is getting a second roundabout—this one at Highway 305.

The state Department of Transportation confirmed to city officials that it plans to install a roundabout there.

“This roundabout will be complex,” Bainbridge Island city manager Blair King said. “Perhaps the community will not be as surprised as I was to learn about the new roundabout and fish passage project at High School Road. Remember, look left and yield to traffic already in the roundabout.”

WSDOT also will include infrastructure to support ferry electrification and improvements to the nearby Ravine Creek and High School Road fish passage. It also will have to accommodate the Sound to Olympics trail, which moves from the east side to the west side of 305 at that intersection.

Part of the project directly involves the city, King said. While BI won’t be on the hook for any road construction, it will have a hand in fish passage. A city-managed culvert will be removed to improve travel for migrating fish, and WSDOT has requested that the city plan accordingly for stormwater management.

The road changes are part of Target Zero, a statewide effort adopted in 2000 to improve highway safety around the state and achieve “zero deaths and zero serious injuries by 2030.” Washington has seen a sudden spike in vehicle collisions and injuries. In 2023, there were 810 traffic-related deaths, and more pedestrians and motorcyclists were killed than any other year on record.

“810 is not just a shocking statistic. Every number represents a life lost. The people who mourn have had their lives changed forever,” said Shelly Baldwin, director of the state Traffic Safety Commission. “I hold them in my heart as I ask drivers to take the actions we know save lives. Drive sober. Be patient. Stay focused. Buckle up.”

In 2017, Kitsap Transit partnered with Kitsap County, the Suquamish Tribe and the cities of BI and Poulsbo to develop a vision for safety updates to SR 305. The study recommended the addition of several roundabouts to the corridor as a traffic calming measure: one in Poulsbo and at least three on the island. At the state route and High School Rd. intersection, the agencies opted to focus on improving channelization, or elements of the road that clarify the flow of travel in high-volume traffic areas.

But in the years following the study, crashes at the intersection made it a priority for the agency, said regional WSDOT representative Cara Mitchell. Road management changes in tandem with each city’s land use, community needs and available funding, she explained.

“[Our agency] has an obligation to ensure the safety of travelers while being good stewards of the resources allocated to us for safety improvements by the state legislature,” Mitchell said. “Overall, we cannot predict what might ‘eventually’ happen. Conditions change over time and our response will evolve to meet the changing context and funding realities.”

Data from the Traffic Safety Commission and WSDOT’s collision portal shows that in the last 10 years, Kitsap County has had a relatively low traffic fatality rate of 6.14%. In that time, BI sustained 1,667 crashes — seven of which were fatal and 56 of which were suspected to have caused serious injury. The SR 305 and High School Road intersection saw one fatal crash in 2016 in which two people were killed.

The state agency favors roundabouts as safety mitigation because they force drivers to slow down and raise their awareness of their surroundings, eliminate T-bone and head-on collisions, and promote a continuous flow of traffic.

“Drivers need only yield to traffic before entering a roundabout; if there is no traffic in the roundabout, drivers are not required to stop,” the state agency wrote on its website. “Because traffic is constantly flowing through the intersection, drivers don’t have the incentive to speed up to try and ‘beat the light,’ like they might at a traditional intersection.”

Mitchell indicated that WSDOT roundabouts throughout the state support similar types of users, including vehicles, buses and transit, bicycles, pedestrians, recreational travel. The quadruple-roundabout at Medical Lake/SR 902 interchange near the Spokane International Airport features a highway interchange, a bus-only lane that funnels buses headed to a transit center and a shared-use path for pedestrians and cyclists.

The SR 305-High School Rd project is in its early stages, Mitchell said. The pre-design process, which includes working with community members and local government to gather feedback and ideas, will begin in early 2025. The agency’s first design drafts are scheduled for 2026, and construction will begin in 2027, project bid provided.

While WSDOT does not yet have a cost estimate, it plans to use state funding earmarked for safety improvements, Mitchell said, but funding for the Ravine Creek fish passage project is dependent on the upcoming legislative session. Other roundabout projects on BI, such as those at Agatewood Road and West Port Madison, have cost $17 million. A fish barrier removal project at Murden Creek cost $10 million.

”If the opportunity presents itself, WSDOT will see if both can be built at the same time to reduce lane closures and construction-related delays for the community,” Mitchell said.

For a town beleaguered by ongoing construction along Madison Avenue and recent updates to ferry traffic flow at the Winslow Way and Highway 305 intersection, along with other roundabouts being built farther north on Highway 305, the announcement was met with concern.

“So many kids cross there to get to and from school. I can’t imagine all of the people trying to get to the ferry in a hurry while our kids are trying to cross at the roundabout to get to school or home,” Kristin Raught said.

Other residents expressed frustration with the sequence of construction. A roundabout set for the Day Road and Highway 305 intersection was delayed by a stormwater management snag, which has since been resolved, King said. But that still leaves the project at Highway 305 and Suquamish Way, BI resident Chris Payne said.

Still others lamented the location. “I appreciate the value of roundabouts. They make sense in many contexts. And I see a need for more in the right places. I would love to see one at the four-way intersection of Koura and Miller — the only four-way intersection on Miller which sees public and school bus traffic, as well as bicycles and pedestrians regularly,” BI resident Peter Godwin said. “But putting one at High School and the 305 is just plain nutty.”