QUILCENE — Town residents will have their first opportunity next Monday to provide input about traffic options meant to increase safety on a 1.2-mile stretch through the community.
The stretch is on U.S. Highway 101 and residents have reported that cars often exceed the posted 30 mph speed limit.
The meeting from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday, Dec. 7 at the Quilcene Community Center, 294952 U.S. Highway 101 will be the first of two meetings where these options will be presented and discussed.
The second meeting had not been scheduled as of today.
The project’s purpose is to provide Quilcene with enhanced pedestrian crossings, sidewalks, and bicycle lanes along Highway 101.
It might also include streetscape improvements such as traffic signs and beacons, pedestrian scale lighting, and landscaping and pedestrian features to serve as visual cues to slow down drivers as they pass through the Quilcene Center, according to a press release from the Jefferson County Department of Public Works.
Tom Brotherton, whose family owns and operates the Quilcene Village Store, expects about 100 people will attend the meeting. About 600 people live in the town.
“Everyone in town knows that people drive too fast on this road,” Brotherton said.
“We are hoping to learn exactly what people want and balance safety and aesthetic issues, although they aren’t going to want to spend a lot of money on something that’s primarily aesthetic.”
Brotherton said that two examples of unsafe areas are a curve just south of Quilcene School with limited visibility and an area in front of Peninsula Foods, 294682 Highway 101, where store customers often make an unsafe U-turn.
The design process is subsidized by a $884,165 grant from the state Department of Transportation that was awarded in June 2012.
In October, Jefferson County commissioners approved two consultant contracts.
The Fischer-Bouma Partnership of Bainbridge Island is to receive $18,000 for landscape architecture and design services while the civil engineering firm SJC Alliance of Olympia, will receive $8,430 to develop plan implementation.
Portions of the grant money could be used for construction but additional funding sources will be needed to complete the project, according to Linda Herzog of Quilcene Conversations.
For more information about the workshop or the project, contact the Jefferson County Department of Public Works at 360-385-9160 or go to www.co.jefferson.wa.us.
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
