What can be done about Gorst? On day of gridlock, leaders met to discuss corridor's future

GORST — After almost two hours of sitting in stalled traffic on Highway 3 on Monday afternoon, Kimberly McCostlin and her family decided to give up on getting through Gorst, stopping in Bremerton for dinner.

McCostlin, a Port Orchard resident in Silverdale for her son's doctor's appointment, was among thousands of stalled motorists who couldn't get through the confluence of highways 16 and 3 because of an overturned garbage truck.

"It took us an hour and 45 minutes to get from Chico Way to Kitsap Way (on Highway 3)," she said. "The exits to take the back ways were all just as bad. It was nuts."

The Washington State Patrol said the cause of the crash was a blown right front tire on a Waste Management truck, which was carrying more than 60,000 pounds of garbage. The driver, 56, suffered minor injuries and will return to work later this week, according to a spokesman for Waste Management. The 10-year veteran of the company was grateful to those who stopped to help during the accident, the spokesman said.

More: Cyclists, leaders brave Gorst in search of elusive north-south Kitsap County bike path

Yet the crash, at the central pinch point of Kitsap County's highway system, stalled commuters, commerce and school bus routes through an area already known for backups.

As it happened, a coalition of local leaders was actually meeting in Bremerton to discuss the Gorst bottleneck ― and efforts to solve it.

What can be done about Gorst?

Members of the Gorst Coalition, a group of area leaders advocating for the project, met Monday with the local chapter of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association in Navy Yard City. Many of those members of both the association and coalition got caught in the Gorst traffic Monday afternoon.

Aside from traffic backups, those leaders voiced concerns about the ability to move people and freight in emergencies, such as earthquakes. Axel Strakeljahn, a Port of Bremerton commissioner and member of the coalition, noted that the Bremerton National Airport, to the southwest of Gorst, is a critical facility for bringing in supplies and manpower in a natural disaster.

"If we cannot get off that hill (at the airport), our community safety and support services are at risk," he said.

The Legislature earlier this year allocated almost $75 million in its Move Ahead Washington plan to design a project to make it easier to get through Gorst, as well as to make the highway more robust in the face of sea-level rise and resilient in emergencies.

The price tag is no small number: about $500 million.

What will that plan look like? A previous plan by the Washington State Department of Transportation called for an elevated highway through the corridor. But coalition leaders Monday deferred plans to the engineers with the state Department of Transportation, who will do the work designing it.

"We're too early to define what the plans look like," state Sen. Emily Randall, D-Bremerton, said.

The money allocated will also complete the analysis of environmental impacts on lands that include the Suquamish Tribe's traditional fishing and shellfish gathering areas. The project has the support of the tribe, said Allison O'Sullivan, one of its senior biologists.

Unknown so far is where the money to pay for such a project will come from. U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor, said it's helpful to have a unified voice of the area's mayors, commissioners, business leaders and others: "It's like a Noah's Ark of stakeholders," he said.

Kilmer noted the recently signed federal infrastructure law, as well as dedicated funds for communities like Kitsap with military installations, could help get the job done.

The coalition includes Naval Base Kitsap's commanding officer, Capt. Rich Massie, who spoke Monday of the critical need for the highway corridor to be more resilient.

"If we can't get parts, freight, food, and supplies through Gorst, we're going to suffer," Massie said.

Association members wondered about the possibility of a bridge over Sinclair Inlet, but Strakeljahn said the estimated cost of that project could be about double what a fix at Gorst would be. There was also specific concern about the Navy's railroad bridge through Gorst, as a critical pinch point that will need to be widened if more capacity is to be added there.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: On day of Gorst gridlock, leaders met to discuss corridor's future