Work slated at Fort Ward

Published 12:00 pm Saturday, July 28, 2007

Traffic delays should be expected when Fort Ward Hill Road undergoes an overhaul beginning next month.

The winding south-end road is being straightened and realigned to the east to fix sinking that has plagued the road for years.

“The problem stems from the soil that the road is on,” city engineer Bob Earl said. “It’s very wet and it’s moving, so what we’re going to do is cure that by creating a whole new embankment that leaves that alignment and straightens it out so we can get off the poor.”

The realigned road will see two 10-foot traffic lanes and two 4-foot shoulders for bicyclists.

“The worst impact will be on traffic,” said Chris Munter, project manager. “But we will maintain at least one lane of traffic throughout construction.”

Construction on the new road will begin sometime in mid-August and has a 90-day timetable for completion, hopefully before the rainy season arrives.

However, due to the nature of the construction, the city is asking south-end residents to be patient.

“This project will be pretty tough in such a constricted construction site,” said Earl. “We just have to ask everyone to be patient as we shift people to the new part of the road.”

Construction costs weigh in around $578,000, after the $70,000 the city paid to engineering firm Berger/Abam for planning and impact studies.

“It was always been about getting the project into the capital improvement plan and getting it into the work plan,” Earl said, referring to the tight budget and limits of city staffing for engineering. “The road’s been deteriorating for quite awhile and the city has been aware of it.”

The project is part of a two-phase revamp of Fort Ward Hill Road.

The next segment will see road rebuilds and the installment of bike lanes up to Kitsap Street at the top of the hill.