With a vote Friday (February 27) in the State Senate, the $15 billion State Transportation bill, including $33 million earmarked for Highway 305 improvements, took another big step toward passage. Now the bill will go to the House.
If it’s voted into law, what will the bill mean for Highway 305 and Bainbridge Island? No one seems to know.
Coucilmembers Val Tollefson and Steve Bonkowski serve on the Puget Sound Transportation Policy group of the Kitsap Regional Coordinating Council. Bonkowski said that Snohomish County had proven that transportation-related lobbying could make a difference in terms of influencing legislators. So last July, as an offshoot of the KRCC, a lobbying effort known as the West Sound Alliance was formed with representatives from Kitsap, Mason, and Thurston counties. Tollefson explained that the goal of the WSA in terms of transportation is to “try to understand in a very broad sense where the needs and priorities would be over the next five, ten to twenty years and start a coordinated lobbying effort to get money earmarked.”
After some quick months of work to beat the legislative deadline, the WSA asked the legislature for “Multi-Modal Safety/Capacity Improvements” to the SR 305 corridor. These were broken down in the proposal as follows:
- $15 million for “SR 305 Bainbridge Ferry Terminal to Agate Pass Bridge (3 intersections @ 1 lane),”
- $200,000 for an “Agate Pass Bridge Replacement Feasibility (30% Design) Study,”
- $80 million plus over the next 20 years for “Agate Pass Bridge Replacement Construction,” and
- $5 million in the next six years for “Sound to Olympics Trail Sections: Winslow ferry to SR 3 (Poulsbo).”
What the Senate approved on Friday was $33 million for “SR 305 Construction—Safety Improvements.”
The very vague language has some community members worrying that there is a hidden agenda behind the request for funding and that plans for, say, expanding 305 are secretly in the works.
But Tollefson was adamant that there have been no conversations about any of it except in terms of identifying a general problem—traffic on 305—and recognizing that it needs to be fixed.
Tollefson said, “We haven’t had a chance yet to have any process. We have only talked about the big picture.” The only other conversations he thought might have happened were possibly among City staff about intersections along 305. (IB has requested information about intersection improvement ideas from the City.)
Bonkowski said he is worried about the Agate Pass Bridge and “any seismic event,” since the bridge is going on 60 years old and it was intended to last for about 50. He said that, despite the fact that the bridge is key to Islanders’ mobility, it is far down on the list of Washington State Department of Transportation priorities. But if funding for its replacement were to be approved, that would change matters and make it possible for action to be taken.
The $160 million for the bridge included in the package comes, Tollefson said, “with no clear idea of how it will be spent.”
Tollefson brought up the bottleneck at the Casino, just over the bridge. He believed that before any funding decisions had been made last year, WSDOT had abandoned the idea of putting in a roundabout or flyover there.
He had no idea what WSDOT’s obligation is to the Bainbridge community in terms of involving them in a decision-making process if the funding comes through. Last month, State Senator Christine Rolfes said that, “typically,” local government working with DOT will determine how the money should be spent. She said that Kitsap residents will have the opportunity to weigh in on the matter.
Tollefson wondered if the current traffic challenges on 305 remained unaddressed by WSDOT because Islanders can get worked up by talk about 305 expansion.
He said that WSDOT, the City Council, and City staff will likely have about two years to figure out how to spend the money if the funding comes through. He added, “It’s a wonderful thing if there’s a pot of money and people can get something done.”
Related Stories
- Senate Committee Approves $33M for ‘Safety Improvements’ to Highway 305
- Senator Rolfes Weighs in on the County’s Wish List for Highway 305 and the Bridge
- Council Paves the Way for 305 Expansion/ Bridge Rebuild
Photo by Sarah Lane.
