Local politicians have ideas, no concrete plans, for Purdy Bridge alternatives
If you haven’t yet heard about the deficiencies with the Purdy bridge, you haven’t spent a lot of time on the Key Peninsula.
“Key Peninsula residents are forced to drive across the little two-lane bridge,” Key Peninsula Community Council President Chuck West said. “I hope you all will help lobby the state to repair the bridge.”
The Purdy Spit Bridge, a 550-foot connector owned and maintained by the state Department of Transportation, was built in 1938 and is listed on the state’s historic register. The bridge has been described as deficient by state traffic studies and is not expected to last when a large earthquake shakes the peninsulas.
On top of the infrastructure issues, residents who cross the bridge have seen how traffic backs up on the skinny overpass which creates the border between Henderson Bay and the Burley Lagoon. The bridge is the only way to access the southern portion of the Key Peninsula and state Route 302 unless drivers go farther north on Purdy Drive to Southwest Pine Road. Southwest Pine Road leads onto Glenwood Road, which eventually redirects drivers to Route 302.
Pierce County Councilmember Derek Young and Rep. Jesse Young, R-Gig Harbor, have a couple of ideas on how to fix the traffic issues surrounding Purdy.
Derek Young said the county and state haven’t taken as much interest in fixing the bridge, and the state hasn’t given much funding to the bridge since the span serves a small population.
“It’s not a ton,” Derek Young said. “So as a return on investment, it doesn’t rank quite as high. But as a need … it is rising rapidly for the need to replace it.”
New bridge considered
Derek Young said the idea to build a parallel bridge next to the Purdy bridge over the Burley Lagoon was not his idea, but it is an idea he is pushing for.
“This has been a big, longtime desire,” he said. “Everyone knows the Purdy bridge is functionally obsolete and ultimately will need major repairs. Everything about it is a problem. It doesn’t make a ton of sense to go over the same footprint, because you still go over the Wauna Curves. There is a strong desire by the state department engineers to find a more direct route.”
Because the Purdy bridge is historic, it would be nearly impossible to replace the bridge.
Derek Young pulled out a map of the Key Peninsula to show where he thinks a new bridge could connect. He pointed out 144th Street Northwest, behind Peninsula High School, and then moves his finger west across the map to where Gateway Park sits off of Route 302. The idea, he said, is to possibly build a bridge that connects to 144th Street Northwest, go across the lagoon, build a new road through the land on the other side of the water and have it connect to the curve on Route 302 near the Lake Kathryn shopping center.
“That’s just one of the routes that was considered when we studied this back in 2005,” Derek Young said. “There are a couple other routes that go up through Kitsap. But for a lot of folks on the Key Peninsula, a Kitsap route wouldn’t help them as much.”
Derek Young said about five road alternatives to the Purdy bridge were offered in a state study done in 2005. But the study was never completed, since the state ran out of funding. Derek Young thinks the idea to connect over the Burley Lagoon would be the best option to ease traffic for his constituents, but he is open to other ideas.
“To be perfectly blunt, if someone gave me information that said the other alternatives are better, then I’m cool with that,” he said. “All I know is we need a replacement for the Purdy bridge.”
Derek Young aspires to have a transportation package that would include building an alternative route to the Purdy bridge and the Fox Island bridge.
Even though Derek Young doesn’t think he’ll be in office by the time a new bridge is built, he is pushing for a proposal now before a transportation package is passed through the legislature again.
He doesn’t know how much it’ll cost yet. If the county and state chose to work on a connection over the Burley Lagoon starting at 144th Street Northwest, it would take heavy engineering and a lot of studies, including studies on the local environment, before any ground would be broken.
Jesse Young’s idea
Jesse Young is a big picture guy. While he sees the need for people to have a better connection to Key Peninsula, he thinks the Purdy bridge is one piece in a large puzzle that if done right, can boost the economy on the Key Peninsula and South Kitsap.
Jesse Young has large maps tacked to his wall at his Gig Harbor office, which he studies while coming up with alternatives to heavy traffic.
Jesse Young agrees with Derek Young: no more studies need to be done — it’s time to start work.
The last time a transportation package was passed in the Legislature, Jesse Young voted against it.
“It was an $8 billion package, and our district was receiving less than $10 million for projects,” he said. “It wasn’t a good deal for us. So they got the Belfair bypass, and we got a study.”
The lawmaker said he believes there can be a fix for the Purdy bridge traffic, Wollochet exit traffic and Gorst exit.
“I believe the best solution, not just for the Key Peninsula, but for the whole region was the plan that said, ‘Let’s go across Pine Street,” he said.
Jesse Young’s ideal plan would widen Purdy Drive to create a second northbound lane through the intersection where residents turn onto the Purdy bridge. Improvements also would be made to Pine Street, which curves and leads back to Route 302.
“The cost of this is much less,” Jesse Young said.
Young believes he can connect the improvement to Pine Street to the Belfair Pass and help create better road infrastructure to entice people from King County and businesses from King County to come to Kitsap and north Pierce County.
“With all the fiber-optics we have in the ground, the fiber investment, I’d like to see more blue-collar IT tech jobs come to this area,” Jesse Young said.
Young has a plan to connect many of the smaller roads all over the peninsula.
“My main focus now is to fix this issue,” Jesse Young said.
Neither Jesse Young or Derek Young had an exact date for when any proposal would be presented to the county or Legislature, or an exact estimate of how much any of the projects would cost.
While fixing traffic issues near Purdy is a top priority, it won’t likely be till the beginning of 2019 that any concrete steps are taken. Anyone interested in the study can read more about possible alternatives to the Purdy bridge at https://www.wsdot.wa.gov/planning/studies/sr-302-elgin-clifton-rd-sr-16-corridor-study.