Community Government Transportation

38th Avenue project will begin soon and disrupt traffic for two years

Drivers and people who live along the two-lane 38th Avenue NW, which links Olympic Boulevard to Hunt Street in Gig Harbor, should prepare for two years of delays. The city has roadway plans in the works.

City plans for the half-mile stretch of road call for a sidewalk, a bike lane, street lights and a sewer main. A roundabout will replace the current intersection at 38th and Olympic Drive/56th Street.

The improvements will be on the east side of the roadway, as that is inside the city limits.

$12.1 million project

The city expects the project to cost $12.1 million, a total that includes purchasing right of way land. About half the funds come from the city’s Transportation Benefit District; a grant provided more than $2 million. 

“Our city planners say constructing a roundabout now would significantly reduce traffic during peak hours,” said Gig Harbor Mayor Mary Barber. “We know from modeling data that the intersection will need to be replaced relatively soon, and I fully support the efforts to strategically align multiple projects to minimize disruptions to the neighborhood and save our community money in the long-term. 

“The addition of the bike lane and sidewalk along 38th will provide an incredible safety benefit to the neighborhood that is not there now.”

For the past six months, crews have been laying conduit to relocate underground fiber optic cable lines. They should finish by mid-April.

The remaining utilities — PenLight, Washington Water, Puget Sound Energy and Comcast — will relocate their utility lines after the city completes right-of-way acquisition.

Utility work along 38th Avenue presages a larger revamp of the road expected to start this year. Photo by Suzanne Roig

Contractor TBA

Once that is done, the city will finalize designs and seek a contractor for the next leg of the work, said Jeff Langhelm, Gig Harbor public works director.

“We will want to have a meeting with the public after we award the contract,” Langhelm said. “We probably won’t have a time line, that’s up to the contractor to say the order of how the work will get done. But we anticipate we’ll start this summer.”

The city plans a meeting this spring to inform residents about the scope of the work.

Making the way safer

The work will improve safety for pedestrians and motorists, Langhelm said. The road lacks sidewalks, which Langelm called “unsafe.” The city has planned to fix that for a long time, he said.

For years, pedestrians have tread on the berms on the side of the road, carving out a walking path of sorts. In some places, those berms are too close to the lane markings on the roadway, he said.

The project started with a plan to make the corridor safer for the future. To do that, the intersection of 38th Avenue  and 56th Street needed to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act — to the tune of $1.5 million.

Rather than spend that money, and then demolish the improvements in a few years to build a new intersection, the city opted to do it all at once. So the project will include a roundabout and upgrades to the entire half-mile length of 38th Avenue NW, Langhelm said.

38th Avenue looking north across 56th Street. Photo by Ted Kenney

Looking ahead

The city will pay for the project using a grant from the Transportation Improvement Board, its sewer fund, transportation impact fees and the transportation benefit fund, according to the city’s website.

Most likely, the first part of the work will be to install the gravity-fed sewer main. That installation will be down the east side of the road, Langhelm said. The contractor will determine specific timing.

Access to homes and businesses will be maintained.