POULSBO — After slogging through one of the wettest winters in recent memory, the State Route 305 widening project appears ready to hit high gear on the way to its October completion date.
“People should see some paving in the next few weeks,” said Washington State Department of Transportation construction manager George Titterness.
The first stretch of the highway to taste new asphalt will be between Lincoln and Bond roads where crews hope to pave the shoulders of the road, Titterness said.
Currently, traffic is being shifted to the west between Forest Rock Lane and Bond Road as the more than 1,000-foot earthen retaining wall is nearing completion, he said.
“That piece is critical, because it will allow the contractor to shift traffic to do the drainage work on the other side,” he said. Otherwise, the contractor will have to work at night and alternate traffic on the two existing lanes.
A night shift has been added as crews are attempting to make up for delays caused by the winter deluges, Titterness said. Even so, water and water quality remain issues as the wall continues rising.
Because of the large amounts of water, pumps are working nonstop to remove the excess and transport it to the project’s wetland mitigation site, which remains full despite the recent sunshine Titterness said.
However, the dry weather has allowed crews to make headway on parts of the project that were delayed because of the rains, he said.
The retaining wall between Harrison Street and the south city limits is completed and most of the drainage work between Lincoln Road and Liberty Road has also been finished, he said.
Other than a few power poles that need to relocated, the shoulder work at the SR 305/Iverson Street and SR 305/Hostmark Street intersections is nearly complete. One power pole along the highway near the Lincoln Road intersection must be moved as well.
The pole near Lincoln Road has a direct tie to the traffic signal work throughout the project, but that hasn’t thrown the project off schedule, Titterness said.
Until the environmental fish window opens around July 1, the widening itself won’t have much impact on traffic other than the continual shifts in the lanes of travel. However, once the window opens, Bond Road near the North Kitsap Medical Center will be reduced to one lane of travel on either side of the medical center for two consecutive weeks.
“One weekend access will be from one direction and the next weekend access will be from the other,” Titterness said. “There will always be access to the center.”
State Route 307 will be closed between SR 305 and east of Valley Nursery on the weekend of Aug. 17-19 for a culvert replacement on the South Fork of Dogfish Creek.
“(SR) 305 won’t be affected, but SR 307 will,” Titterness said.
As work on the project continues ramping up with the warmer weather, he offered a friendly reminder for motorists traversing through the work zone.
“Don’t take it out on the flaggers,” he said. “If you have to take it out on anybody call me.”
