Community Transportation

Lane of southbound Highway 302 permanently closing next week

Washington Department of Transportation will permanently close southbound Highway 302 between the Purdy Bridge and Burnham Drive next week. 

At the same time, crews will restrict left turns from Burnham to northbound 302. A 42-year-old Gig Harbor woman died in February while trying to make that turn. 

WSDOT crews will do the work between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 16 and 17.  

Cars wait to turn from Goodnough Drive and Burnham Drive on to Highway 302. Photo by Ted Kenney

When the job is complete, southbound Highway 302 will be one lane from the Purdy Bridge to the Highway 16 onramp. It is currently two lanes, with the right lane ending as a right-turn-only onto Burnham Drive. 

“This is designed to improve safety by reducing opportunities for risky driver behavior including speeding and last-minute merging near the SR 16 interchange,” according to WSDOT’s announcement of the project. 

In place of the second traffic lane on southbound 302, WSDOT will create a new shared-use path for cyclists and pedestrians on the shoulder of the roadway. 

WSDOT said it developed the changes after conducting traffic and speed studies. Those studies “were prompted by citizen and partner agency requests” and increased traffic between Gig Harbor and the Key Peninsula. 

Washington State Patrol responded to 27 collisions within 100 feet of the 302-Burnham intersection since 2015. None caused serious injuries or fatalities until February, when Gurpreet Kaur died and two people were hospitalized following a collision at the intersection.