OLYMPIA — A $32 million project to widen to four lanes an accident-prone stretch of U.S. Highway 101 between Port Angeles and Sequim was included in the supplemental transportation budget passed by the state House of Representatives on Tuesday.
But the widening of the 2.5-mile section between Shore and Kitchen-Dick roads isn’t planned until the 2009-11 budget period because it requires obtaining a right of way from the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife to widen McDonald Creek Bridge.
The supplemental transportation budget must now be approved by the state Senate.
State Rep. Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, is hopeful it will stay in the budget this year.
The Highway 101 widening was budgeted in the transportation budget for the 2005-07 biennium, then was dropped, to save money, at the last minute during House-Senate negotiations.
“I got it in there [this year] with Rep. Ed Murray’s help. He put a lot into my [Olympic Peninsula] district,” said Kessler.
Murray, a Seattle Democrat, is chairman of the House Transportation Committee.
“He did it because I asked him, and it is a safety issue. He’s trying to make the supplemental budget about safety.
“Murray is doing this for me.
“It’s his pledge to me. I have asked for this and dogged him about it since last summer.”
