A Tunnel Under Puget Sound? -- Study Would Put It, Or A Bridge, From Kitsap Peninsula To Vashon To Burien

BREMERTON - If a bridge or tunnel is built across Puget Sound, it should extend from the South Kitsap Peninsula across Vashon Island to the King County community of Seahurst near Burien, a new study says.

In a preliminary report released late last week in the $1.3 million Cross-Sound Transportation Study, consultants sketched out transportation alternatives between the Edmonds-Kingston ferry crossing to the north and the Southworth-Fauntleroy corridor to the south.

The recommendations will be addressed at six public hearings next month.

Without a cross-Sound bridge or tunnel, ferry-service improvements are the only way to deal with growth and congestion at the Kingston-Edmonds, Bremerton-Seattle and Winslow-Seattle crossings, said Booz-Allen & Hamilton of California, lead consultant on the study.

Cross-Sound bridging or tunneling is not technically feasible at those crossings due to distance, water depth and marine-traffic conflicts, the study said.

Other options - a mixed-traffic bridge, a bridge primarily for high-occupancy vehicles such as buses and car pools, or a transit-and-commercial-vehicle-only bridge or tunnel-tube - could be developed to the south, extending from the Kitsap Peninsula community of Fragaria to Vashon and finally to Seahurst in King County, the report said.

Service improvements are possible at the Southworth-Fauntleroy ferry crossing "with some change in corridor location," it said.

The report also said a second bridge across the Tacoma Narrows is the only way to ease congestion there.

"A new ferry route would not offer sufficient capacity and the geography on both sides of the water is not conducive for a tube or tunnel," it said, predicting that periods of rush-hour congestion will grow from three hours to five hours in the next 20 years if the growth rate holds steady.

The consultants also raised the possibility of a bridge between the Central Kitsap mainland and Bainbridge Island, crossing at Fletcher Bay or Illahee Pass.

Final recommendations are due later this year.

------------------ HEARINGS SCHEDULED ------------------

Hearings on the Cross-Sound Transportation Study will be held:

-- March 2, Sedgwick Junior High School, South Kitsap.

-- March 3, Tacoma Community College theater.

-- March 4, Edmonds-Woodway High School, Edmonds.

-- March 5, Burien Public Library.

-- March 9, Vashon High School.

-- March 10, Bainbridge High School.