Will new apartments push Gig Harbor roundabout to the breaking point?
Just how many motorists will new apartments in Gig Harbor North add to the roads?
A new study recently completed by the city’s on-call transportation consultants aimed to answer that question, projecting how three proposed apartment complexes could worsen congestion in the large roundabout connecting Borgen Boulevard, Burnham Drive, Canterwood Boulevard and state Route 16. It recommended a solution: the city could install a traffic signal to control the number of cars entering the Burnham Drive leg of the roundabout, coming from the overpass above state Route 16.
Gig Harbor City Council members discussed the study at their study session April 30 and were largely supportive of the traffic signal, acknowledging concerns from the public about accelerating growth in the Gig Harbor North area.
“Clearly this is a problem,” Council member Ben Coronado said, referring to the traffic at the roundabout. “ ... I think this is a potential solution to alleviate scary situations in this roundabout, while also hopefully helping mitigate some of this traffic backup on the opposing intersection.”
The city’s permit portal shows that dozens of residents submitted public comments to the city about proposed developments in Gig Harbor North. Many raised concerns about how the new construction could strain local roads and infrastructure, including the Borgen Boulevard roundabout.
One resident, Phil Lynch, wrote the city in November that he had concerns about how two proposed projects, the Gig Harbor North Annex development and Trailside Apartments, could affect existing traffic infrastructure.
“What is the expected average vehicular traffic load (during both peak and non-peak hours of the day)?” he wrote. “Is our current system of roads, traffic metering devices, signs, traffic signals, and speed limits sufficient for this expected demand?”
“My primary concern is the significant increase in traffic that these developments will bring to Canterwood Boulevard, Borgen Boulevard, and the State Route 16,” another resident, John Sanchez, wrote. “These roads are already heavily congested, and I would like to know whether there are any plans to add additional lanes or otherwise improve traffic flow to accommodate this growth.”
What did the study find?
The study by David Evans and Associates found that three proposed developments would push the Borgen Boulevard roundabout below an acceptable Level of Service (LOS), which is a category based on the average delay that a driver experiences at an intersection. Those developments are:
- Vista Apartments: a 156-unit apartment complex proposed on a site just west of St. Anthony Hospital
- Gig Harbor North Annex: a 108-unit multifamily development east of Canterwood Boulevard and south of St. Anthony Hospital
- Trailside Apartments: a 120-unit apartment complex located outside Gig Harbor city limits, east of Canterwood Boulevard and south of Baker Way Northwest
The city’s transportation plan dictates that most intersections in Gig Harbor have to be at LOS D or better, though there are some exceptions for intersections downtown, The News Tribune reported. Drivers at a LOS D intersection are delayed by an average of 55 seconds, according to the traffic study.
The city is required by the Washington State Growth Management Act (GMA) to ensure that roads can accommodate projected population growth, for the goal of what’s known as “transportation concurrency.” Each proposed residential development must undergo a traffic study before the city can approve it, ensuring that growth doesn’t happen unchecked without the infrastructure to support it.
If the three developments were built in the next six years (assuming a faster timeline than city staff expect), the average delay a driver could experience moving through the Borgen roundabout could increase to 57 seconds, dropping the intersection to LOS E, which the city defines as “failing,” the study found.
The proposed traffic signal would bring the intersection to LOS B, according to the study. A second option was constructing a right-turn slip lane from the Borgen Boulevard entrance to bypass the roundabout entirely, which would bring the intersection to LOS D.
The consultants also examined how the addition of just Trailside Apartments to the model would impact traffic at the roundabout. They projected that intersection would not drop below LOS D.
Why a traffic meter?
Gig Harbor Public Works Director Jeff Langhelm told council members at the study session April 30 that the city previously added the traffic meter to their six-year Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), which is a list of projects the city plans to complete in the next six years.
The city removed the project from the TIP after observing a significant decrease in traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic and following the Harbor Hill Drive extension project, he said.
Looking at the traffic now, staff believe the project is worth adding back in.
“We see growth coming into this area again, but we see it coming in a much faster rate, and council hears about it, staff hears about it, the public hears about it, and the public is concerned about impacts to this roundabout and just traffic and congestion in general,” Langhelm said at the study session.
Think of the proposed signal as similar to a traffic light installed on a highway on-ramp. You drive up to the stop bar, wait until the light turns green, then merge in with highway traffic. At the Borgen Boulevard roundabout, the light would be set back a short distance from the entrance, according to Langhelm.
“The metering will intermittently stop vehicles from free-flowing into the center of the roundabout,” he said. “It will have a red light and a green light, red line, green light, one car at a time, that kind of sequencing.”
Why choose the Burnham Drive overpass entrance for the signal? According to Langhelm, the section of the roundabout near that entrance typically has the fewest number of cars passing through it, meaning it’s the easiest place for cars to enter the roundabout.
“ ... when it’s free flowing, then those vehicles coming from the west side of the highway fill up the roundabout first,” he said. “They essentially get first priority, and so it causes the other legs to have to wait for those vehicles to clear, and when they’re constant like that, they don’t clear.”
The city is aware that the signal will create a queue on Burnham Drive, he said. It’s the cost of making the intersection as a whole more efficient.
Langhelm identified a traffic light installed in the Tri-Cities as a similar example. In 2018, the Washington State Department of Transportation installed a stop-and-go light about 100 yards from the entrance to the Steptoe roundabout in Richland. The Tri-City Herald reported the $100,000 meter system was designed to address increased traffic and backups onto the eastbound off-ramp of state Route 240.
The Gig Harbor meter was projected to cost $700,000 in the city’s 2021 TIP, and Langhelm said he would expect a re-estimate now would come closer to $800,000.
How soon could the light be installed?
The city council is scheduled to discuss the 2027 TIP at their May 28 study session, with proposed adoption at their meeting June 22. If the traffic meter is approved as part of the TIP, staff will continue watching the intersection and recommend the project for funding in a future budget cycle.
The roundabout isn’t considered “failing” yet. Langhelm said city staff likely won’t recommend the project for funding in the 2027-2028 budget.
“We will continue to monitor and assess traffic levels, and then once traffic starts to degrade to a point, then we will request funding through the budget process,” he said.
The public will have opportunities to comment on upcoming TIP discussions — which happen every year in May or June when the TIP is adopted for the following year — and during the biannual budget process, according to Langhelm.
