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DW story on O.S. construction
front page “news” today:
By Rachel Thomson
OCEAN SHORES — During daylight hours, construction crews in orange-and-yellow striped sweatshirts are scraping dirt with shovels. A backhoe rumbles to life, beeping loudly while its tires squish over mud as an operator throws the switch in reverse. Drivers look cautiously out their windows while navigating through detours, which change almost daily.
By nightfall, the banging and clanging of road work in Ocean Shores has stopped, but driving through town is like wandering through a graveyard of traffic cones.
Residents have complained all the construction chaos has made it frustrating to get from point A to point B, while some business owners have said that all the traffic revisions have caused them to lose up to 30 percent of their sales during the tail end of summer.
Construction projects — such as the re-paving of all the city’s roads funded by a local improvement district, the addition of sidewalks to major throughways courtesy of the state transportation improvement board, and now a new roundabout — all seem to be going on simultaneously. Many residents have expressed support for beautifying their town, but according to city officials, some of the most-asked questions are why the construction is happening all at once and when it will be completed.
Construction for all city roads and projects should be done by the end of December, with the bulk of it finished by mid-to-late November, according to public works director Ken Lanfear.
Lanfear said all the construction projects in the downtown area being scheduled simultaneously was intentional.
In 2007, the city approved a $31 million plan to improve and repave all the city’s 120 miles of roadways by forming a local improvement district that would allow the city to collect money from property owners who would then see a corresponding increase in property values after construction was completed. Construction for those projects began in 2007 and was to be done in phases, covering one-third of the town per year. The portion of the project that includes downtown began this year.
Since 2007, the city also acquired more than $1.5 million in grants from the state’s Transportation Improvement Board to replace the four-way stop at Chance A La Mer and Point Brown Avenue with a roundabout. The city also received $700,000 in grants from the board that year to improve roadways on Chance A La Mer and Ocean Shores Boulevard by reducing the number of lanes, widening them and adding sidewalks, parking and landscaping, The Daily World reported in 2007. The city also secured a $95,190 grant to construct a sidewalk between the Post Office and the Ocean Shores IGA.
Lanfear said the city decided to combine the roundabout project and other transportation improvement board-funded work.
“Rather than tear up downtown at all different times, we decided to do it all at once,” he said.
Lanfear added since funding was secured for the roundabout a couple of years ago, several business owners had come to his department to tell him not to begin construction until after Labor Day so as not to interfere with tourist traffic.
“Unfortunately, it leaves a short time to get everything done and everything’s in a crunch to get it done by the end of the year. We have a very narrow window.”
BUSINESS IMPACT
The construction has had an impact on the businesses downtown, according to Leslie Reedy, executive director of the Ocean Shores Chamber of Commerce. Reedy and several business owners voiced concerns about construction to the mayor and public works director at a town hall meeting earlier this month.
She said several businesses have seen up to a 30 percent decline in sales in September, typically one of the best months for local businesses. She said some businesses have had to reconfigure their hours around construction, and some were forced to switch to winter hours early.
“We didn’t have September,” Reedy said. “It’s been really frustrating.”
Dianne Hansen, owner of The Dusty Trunk on Point Brown Avenue, said often times the roads are bumpy and full of debris, which may have detoured shoppers from downtown.
“The inconvenience of having multiple roads closed at the same time in the same areas of town has caused locals to think about the hassle of getting some place versus just jumping in their car and doing some fun shopping,” Hansen said.
Other problems Reedy said she’s heard from business owners include not getting adequate notice of road closures and flaggers who are not familiar with the area.
Michael Sturm, who manages the Flying Cats gift store on Chance a La Mer, said he’s only had to close his store once when road crews said they’d have to shut the street down for six hours, but other businesses have been “devastated” by the construction.
One positive thing that has come out of the construction is that it has pulled a lot of business owners together, Sturm said. For example, many store owners have “mapped out” alternate routes for visitors to get to stores, avoiding as much of the construction as possible.
“Folks that have found their way here have as much of a desire to get here as we are to serve them,” he said.
Reedy said business owners are tying to be creative to keep customers coming back. She said Kelly May, co-owner of the Fusions Gallery, handed out business cards to motorists idling in traffic and said if they visited after the construction was completed, she would give those customers a discount.
Reedy said the chamber is also brainstorming different ways to recoup revenue lost in September by kicking off an “September in April” campaign. The chamber will run more ads and get businesses to sign on to produce coupon books. She said the goal is to get people to visit in the spring to see the improved downtown when construction is complete.
The chamber is also encouraging businesses to participate in “Shop Ocean Shores” during the winter months, where shoppers save their receipts and for every $20 spent, they are entered into a raffle for cash and prizes.
ROUNDABOUT ANXIETY
All the traffic detours have caused some frustration, but the roundabout may continue to create some anxiety for a while after it’s built, Lanfear said.
Lanfear said he’s received some calls from people who are worried about navigating the roundabout. He said some worry the roundabout might cause more accidents or may not be wide enough for large vehicles.
Dustin Terpening, a spokesman for the Washington Department of Transportation, says a lot of fears about roundabouts are unfounded.
Terpening is overseeing a project on state Route 539 near Bellingham. The DOT has completed three roundabouts about one mile apart in the area since May, and will complete a fourth by the end of the year.
He said since the first roundabout opened, there was only one collision reported.
A study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found roundabouts reduced crashes by 75 percent at intersections where stop signs and signals were previously used for traffic control.The study cited low travel speeds, one-way travel and no traffic lights as reasons for the lowered risk. Furthermore, it said roundabouts also promote traffic flow and reduce exhaust rates from idling vehicles.
There were several closures of side streets during construction, according to Terpening, but the DOT participated in a public education campaign with local officials and law enforcement to notify people of road closures.
The department has put together informational brochures on how to navigate through a roundabout as well as educational videos on roundabouts on Youtube.com, which are available on the department’s Web site.
“Of course there’s going to be a learning curve,” Terpening said. “When a roundabout opens people aren’t magically going to know how to drive it. But once they’ve gone through it a few times, people realize it’s not as bad as it was going to be.”
Looking forward
Back on the North Beach, there’s still work to be done. Crossovers need to be finished as well as trimming and cleanup. Concrete work won’t be completed for a few more weeks and asphalt won’t go down until early November, Lanfear said.
In the meantime, business owners say they’re looking forward to a better-looking downtown.
Lance Lehne of Tsunami Gems & Beads said this week he’s seen a slight dip in business compared to this time last year, but “I’m staying focused on the big picture, It’s really going to beautify that ugly intersection.”
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