A cure for the Gorst gridlock? Inside lawmakers' $335 million plan
BREMERTON — Democrats in the state Senate have unveiled a $300 million fix for the gridlock in Gorst.
The bold proposal, part of an overall $17.1 billion package to invest in transportation and green projects across the state, calls for elevating the roadway through the intersection of highways 3 and 16 and adding an additional lane in each direction north of Gorst to Highway 304 to ease congestion. Tax increases, including the nation's first carbon fee, would fund the work over the next 10 years.
"If the state can move forward on this, it represents a lot of potential upsides for Kitsap County," said U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor.
Elevating the roadway through Gorst, a long-term recommendation by the Washington State Department of Transportation in a recently completed study, makes the corridor more robust against storms and flooding that have at times closed it down. Dennis Engel, a planner for the WSDOT, said a railroad trestle, the tracks of which lead to area Navy bases, would also need to be replaced to accommodate the additional lanes of travel.
It's also a tight stretch of road north of Gorst, abutted by rock cliffs at Windy Point and paralleling railroad tracks that follow the highway along Puget Sound.
Regardless, Kilmer noted that Gorst is a critical confluence of traffic that serves Kitsap's naval installations and, as it grows, the Puget Sound Industrial Center near the Bremerton National Airport.
State Sen. Emily Randall, a Bremerton Democrat on the Senate's Transportation Committee, said the proposal not only helps alleviate backups in Gorst, but it would also fund green projects such as culvert replacements within the Sinclair Inlet watershed to help restore fish passage. The overall Senate package includes about $3.5 billion to replace such fish barriers.
"We have been overlooked for transportation infrastructure for too long in Kitsap County," Randall said.
State Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch, also supports the $17.1 billion plan, proposed Thursday by Senate Transportation Committee chairman Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens. Sheldon, who has caucused with Republicans, said his party's introduction of a carbon fee was inevitable with Democrats in the majority in both the House and Senate. He likes Hobbs' plan because "you get something for it."
"This proposal starts to get it done and provides a lot of jobs," said Sheldon, who felt the fuel tax was the fairest way to pay for such transportation projects.
The complete Gorst plan also includes an additional $35 million for intersection improvements. And the wider $17.1 billion package includes about $1.7 billion in capital expenses for Washington State Ferries, along with many bike and pedestrian projects around the state that proponents say would lessen Washington's carbon footprint.
To pay for it, the state would add a 6-cent-per-gallon tax on fuel and charge $15 per ton of carbon emitted. Together the carbon fee and gas tax provide about $10 billion of the roughly $13.6 billion in fees in the package. Bonds add an additional $3.5 billion.
Along with the carbon fee and gas tax, the package unveiled Thursday would also raise fees on commercial and private vehicles, property development, electric vehicles, as well as taxes on rental cars, bicycles and auto parts.
Hobbs' proposal has many hurdles to clear in the Legislature, including votes in the Senate and House. Rep. Jesse Young, R-Port Orchard, who serves on the House's Transportation Committee, did not return calls or emails for comment on the proposal.
Over the years, many ideas have been floated for fixing the Gorst traffic jam, to include a bridge over Sinclair Inlet. The state Department of Transportation's study, which consulted various area elected officials, favors adding capacity on the current roadway. The study recommended in the near term a "peak-use" shoulder lane that could be added and used at rush hour to help the flow. But lawmakers' proposal actually recommends the more bold plan of adding lanes in both directions of Highway 3 in between Highway 16 and Highway 304.
All the while, traffic in Gorst at peak times — defined by the state in the study as between 6:15-7:15 a.m. and 3:15-4:15 p.m. — continues to worsen as the area grows. Chris Burlison, a former superintendent at Viking Fence in Gorst, recalls adding in a half-hour just attempting to get in and out of the traffic.
"Trying to get out in Gorst was probably one of the worst things I've ever encountered in my life," he said.
By: Josh Farley
Source: Kitsap Sun