City sets timeline, plan for closure

Paige Richmond

of the Gateway

The Gig Harbor City Council meeting Monday night was primed for drama: City staff held a public meeting to address the proposed three-month closure of Canterwood Boulevard this summer.

Interim improvements must be made to the road to accommodate increased traffic that likely will be caused by the opening of St. Anthony Hospital early next year. The Canterwood project — on tight time constraints due to environmental concerns over the construction of a fish-friendly culvert — is slated to last from August through October.

A handful of concerned citizens signed up to address the council on Monday, one month after City Administrator Rob Karlinsey mailed a notice of the proposed closure to Canterwood residents. The Canterwood Homeowners’ Association mailed a response letter to Karlinsey on June 4, stating their intended presence at the meeting and questioning “the need for the ‘fish-friendly’ culvert.”

But after Mayor Chuck Hunter and newly hired Director of Operations David Stubchaer addressed the public, there was little comment to be had.

One resident, Tom Sudich, had signed up to speak, then declined, saying “all of my questions had been answered.”

In a brief presentation, Stubchaer explained why the road closure was the only option for Canterwood Boulevard: Interim improvements will require a 5-foot change in road grade, which would make the road undriveable during construction; deep trenches will be opened for utility relocation and the construction of retaining walls; and any flagging or intermittent closures on the road would cause traffic impacts to nearby roundabouts.

A 10-minute temporary closure, Stubchaer said, “would bring whole the whole roundabout to a standstill.”

The biggest factor, however, is the “fish window” established by the Army Corps of Engineers during the permitting process for the street improvements. The city must also install a fish-friendly culvert while working on Canterwood, and to meet environmental regulations, that installation can be only be done between July and September each year.

If the culvert were not installed this summer, the city would need to wait until next July to begin improvements on Canterwood — long after the new hospital is scheduled to open.

Doug Allen, chairperson for the Canterwood HOA’s Governmental Affairs Committee, addressed the council on Monday, asking about potential traffic congestion caused by the street closure. Allen requested that the temporary stoplight proposed at the “dangerous” and “blind” intersection of 144th Street NW and 54th Street NW — where the city plans to detour traffic during construction — be made permanent once the project is complete.

At the meeting’s end, some audience members expressed sympathy for the city’s decision. Budd Wagner, Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Franciscan Health Systems — which includes St. Anthony Hospital — stated the closure of Canterwood Boulevard would barely impact deliveries during hospital construction.

“We appreciate fully that (the city is) between a rock and a hard place,” he said. “Well, a rock and a fish culvert.”

Other business

The Gig Harbor City Council addressed two other issues at Monday’s night meeting:

P. Peter Stanley, the owner of the property where the Tides Taverns now stands, has not yet signed a lease renewal with the city for a small area of tideland near the Tides. The terms of the lease — whether five, 10 or 20 years — are still being negotiated. The operation and ownership of the Tides Tavern will not be affected.

A recently passed junk vehicle ordinance was given its first public test at Monday’s meeting. Michael Elwell expressed concern over the “six fuel trucks and nine non-driveable vehicles” in the empty lot across from the Tides Tavern. City Administrator Rob Karlinsey told Elwell that another resident had also complained about the problem, and that the lot is in violation is of the new ordinance.