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Project Facts

• Once complete, the Bremerton Tunnel will be 959 feet long.
• The transportation improvements for this project are funded by Federal Highway Administration funds issued directly by Congress, Federal Transit Administration funds, and Ferry Toll Credits issued to WSDOT. The Combined Sewer Overflow Reduction project is funded by an EPA grant and local funds.
• Projected Completion Date: spring 2009.

Why is WSDOT pursuing this project?

The Washington State Department of Transportation is designing a tunnel to separate downtown Bremerton pedestrian traffic from offloading Washington State Ferry traffic. The periodic surge of ferry traffic through downtown Bremerton is interfering with pedestrian and local traffic flow including access to and from the Bremerton Transportation Center (BTC). In addition, substantial improvements to the city's downtown core, including a new conference center and hotel complex, office buildings, a park and a memorial plaza, will generate a considerable increase in pedestrian and motorist activity downtown.

Our Partners
This project is in partnership with the city of Bremerton, Kitsap Transit, the Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration. Other organizations have also participated in its development, including the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and local emergency services.

The End Result
A tunnel that connects the BTC to Burwell Street will improve pedestrian safety and local traffic flow in downtown Bremerton by removing approximately 65 percent (regional traffic) of offloading ferry traffic from Washington Avenue. Other modifications to the downtown roadway system will provide continued access for offloading local ferry traffic headed to the Manette Bridge and beyond, improve access to the BTC for incoming traffic, and complete a major link in the city's Combined Sewer Outflow (CSO) Reduction project.

Project Benefits

• Safety. This project addresses the increasing pedestrian/vehicle conflict created at scheduled ferry arrivals in downtown Bremerton. Currently, pedestrians wanting to cross downtown streets in the vicinity of the BTC are hindered from doing so for as long as 10 minutes at a time while vehicular ferry traffic offloads. As a result, pedestrians have been known to dart out into oncoming traffic, while others simply avoid coming downtown altogether. With downtown improvements drawing a significant increase in pedestrian and local vehicular traffic, this challenge is expected to multiply. This project will address that concern by removing approximately 65 percent of offloading vehicular ferry traffic from the Washington Avenue waterfront area.
• Congestion Relief. The multiple improvements to the downtown Bremerton core will generate significant increases in local pedestrian and vehicular traffic. Much of the offloading ferry traffic is not destined for downtown, but rather for parts beyond. The tunnel will improve local traffic flow by removing approximately 65 percent of offloading ferry traffic from downtown streets by directing ferry traffic flow directly to Burwell.
• Improved Incoming Ferry Traffic Management. The current roadway configuration along Pacific Avenue, 1st Street and the entry into the BTC does not efficiently handle oversized incoming ferry vehicular traffic. Additionally, there is not a bypass lane for incoming transit and vanpool traffic, and the current arrangement of toll booths does not process oversized incoming vehicles efficiently. There is not adequate holding area for vehicles waiting to board the ferry, so traffic tends to back up into the downtown area during peak traffic periods. This project will better manage incoming ferry traffic by adding a lane on Pacific to accommodate incoming transit and vanpool traffic, by increasing the size of the vehicle holding area at the BTC, and by repositioning the toll booths so that oversized vehicles can be accommodated in any lane.
• Environment. The design and construction of the City of Bremerton combined sewer overflow (CSO) project will be coordinated with the tunnel project. The CSO is needed for the city of Bremerton to comply with the state of Washington's municipal waste discharge regulations and to reduce combined sewer overflow events in the Pacific Avenue Basin to an average of no more than one per year. The CSO project includes two specific improvements: construction of a CSO trunk line from the intersection of Fourth Street and Park Avenue to an outfall located at the BTC, and construction of a storm water collection system to reduce the frequency of combined sewage flows in the basin. By coordinating the design of the tunnel and the CSO trunk line, significant savings can be realized in the CSO project.
  

What is the project timeline?
In fall 2003, WSDOT began an Environmental Assessment (EA) identifying and examining the potential impacts of its preferred alternative, involving a tunnel under downtown Bremerton and surface-street improvements. The Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration reviewed the EA and issued a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI). WSDOT awarded the project to Tri-State Construction, Inc. for $30.7 million in May 2007. Construction is slated to begin in early July 2007.

Public Involvement
In fall 2003, the public had opportunities to provide input regarding several design alternatives under consideration. Based on that input, as well as engineering considerations and the needs of the primary stakeholders in the project (Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Washington State Ferry System, Kitsap Transit, city of Bremerton), the alternatives were narrowed down to a preferred (tunnel) and a secondary (surface-street) alternative. The impacts of these two alternatives were included in the EA. The EA Summary is available for review on this Web site. More than 250 people provided review and comment on the EA from April 4 through May 3 of 2005. Because property and business owners along the proposed route will be directly affected by the project, the project team did individual interviews to determine their needs and answer any of their questions.

Environmental Protection
Protection of the environment during and after construction of this project is of great importance. The EA is now complete. experts in biology, civil engineering, traffic engineering, archaeology, noise and vibration analysis and other disciplines gathered the data required to complete the EA. The Federal Highway Administration and the Federal Transit Administration have reviewed the EA and issued a FONSI.

A city of Bremerton project to install a combined sewer overflow (CSO) reduction line has been combined with the WSDOT project to maximize cost effectiveness and minimize disruption during construction. For more information visit www.cityofbremerton.com/content/cso_csos.html.
Please visit the WSDOT Environmental Services Web site for more information.

Increasing safety is one of our priorities
The pivotal reason for this project is to improve pedestrian safety in downtown Bremerton. This project will improve safety for pedestrians and motorists, especially during ferry offloading.

Will this project impact tribal resources?
At WSDOT we seek to address the concerns of the tribal nations using the process outlined in Section 106 of The National Historic Preservation Act and the WSDOT Tribal Consultation Policy adopted in 2003 by the Transportation Commission as part of the WSDOT Centennial Accord Plan.

No designated tribal lands are involved. Even so, the project team consulted with the Suquamish Tribe to determine whether the site is of historic importance to the tribe and to assess the potential of finding archaeologically significant resources on site.

For more information visit our WSDOT Tribal Liaison website.

Financial Information
The Washington State Legislature has not directly allocated funds for this project.

The transportation improvement portion of this project is funded primarily by federal funds from the Federal Highway Administration, and the Federal Transit Administration. WSDOT is providing matching funds in the form of ferry toll credits issued to it by the Federal Highway Administration. City funds will only be used to cover 45 percent of the cost of the Combined Sewer Overflow Reduction project. A grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to the city will cover 55 percent of the sewer project costs.

How can I get more information?
Contact:
Brenden Clarke, Project Engineer
WSDOT Port Orchard Project Office
8293 Spring Creek Road
Port Orchard, WA 98367
360-874-3010
ClarkeB@wsdot.wa.gov

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