Belfair Bypass schedule takes shape

It's been a long time coming.

Construction of the Belfair Bypass, officially known as the Highway 3 Freight Corridor, is set to start in 2026 and should be finished by 2028, state Sen. Drew MacEwen, R-Shelton, told a standing-room-only crowd at a town hall meeting in Belfair on Nov. 9.

The 6-mile corridor will provide an alternative for highway users to travel around, and not through, Belfair.

More than 300 people packed into The HUB's auditorium to hear an update and ask questions about the construction project, according to HUB staff.

"This issue has been around longer than some of us have been alive," MacEwen told the audience, prompting laughter.

The need for a better and safer way to travel between Shelton, Belfair and Bremerton was identified back in 1966 in the state Department of Transportation's Reconnaissance Study.

In 1998, Mason County prepared a feasibility study and found a Belfair bypass was needed, according to WSDOT planning documents.

The county published an environmental assessment of the bypass in 2001.

WSDOT did a separate study and did not recommend constructing a bypass, according to a provisional report in 2010, and instead widened state Route 3 and added safety improvements in 2013.

The county continued to push for the freight corridor and secured funding later in the decade with the help of state lawmakers from the 35th District.

"This project is funded now," MacEwen said. "We have absolutely enough money to do the complete project."

MacEwen also assured the audience that the project will be built without increasing taxes.

While funding was secured, the timing of the project was still uncertain in the last legislative session. Gov. Jay Inslee "punted on a ton of proposals, including the Belfair Bypass," MacEwen said.

If the governor's proposed budget had passed, "we would be having this conversation in the 2030s," state Rep. Travis Couture, R-Allyn told the crowd.

The three lawmakers fought to keep construction in the budget and won.

WSDOT Olympia Region Administrator Steve Roark gave an overview of the construction along with a tentative timeline.

"The purpose is to separate regional and local traffic," Roark said.

The bypass should syphon off 25%-30% of traffic away from downtown Belfair, according to WSDOT.

Roark said he knows traffic in the area is bad.

"I experienced some of what you probably experience every day on the drive in here today. I feel your pain."

He said the new route should help.

Travel times through Belfair will also decrease and there will be predictability from how long it takes to get from point A to point B, Roark said.

Currently, Roark said depending on where you measure, there are "anywhere from 18,000 to 19,000 cars a day traveling through Belfair."

Roark explained how the new route will work.

"As you're coming from the airport and you're heading toward Belfair, you'll peel off through a slip ramp on this roundabout and in the future if you want to go downtown like you do today, you want to continue on to the new bypass and you would go through the roundabout. If you want to go to Lake Flora Road, you go all the way around the roundabout."

The south end of the corridor is a double roundabout that will have connections with state Route 302 and state Route 3.

Griffey said two intersections that will not be built as part of the current project, but that are contemplated for the future, will be at Romance Hill and Log Yard Road. They were removed from the state project, but Mason

County might add them in the future.

"The county is looking at those as a potential intersection someday for expansion. The state has no involvement in those. Those are just placeholders for a potential improvement in the future," Griffey said.

Belfair's Alta neighborhood will have a T-intersection stop sign along the route.

"Otherwise, the neighborhood would be landlocked," Roark said.

The bypass is a limited access route, just like an interstate highway, and the only way you can get off or on is at an interchange.

The bypass won't have any access except for the Alta neighborhood and future intersections that the county might build, Roark said.

An audience member called out a question about the Alta access.

"The folks that are going to be on the other side have to cross traffic if they want to go to Allyn. When they come home, they have to cross traffic. Is there going to be a turn lane put in?"

Roark said they haven't gotten that far yet.

"That's a good perspective," Roark said. WSDOT will look at the volume of traffic and if it meets the requirements for a turn lane, "We will design one," he said.

The design, environmental assessment and engineering for the project are all underway. Environmental assessment and permitting for construction should be done by 2024.

In January, WSDOT will release the environmental assessment and provide hearings for public comments.

"We expect to have a finding of no significant impact," Roark said.

As soon as the impact statement gets the green light, then the state can start buying up property needed for construction.

"That is where the uncertainty is," Roark said about the appraisals and acquisitions.

"Willing sellers go faster than nonwilling sellers."

The state has the authority to use eminent domain to acquire property, but Roark said they don't like to use it.

"We will if necessary," he said.

The schedule allows up to two years for buying all the necessary land.

Then construction can start. That puts groundbreaking on the project in late 2026 or early 2027.

"That's probably not what you want to hear, but that's the reality of getting a transportation project across the finish line," Roark told the crowd.

He continued with more news, telling the audience that during bypass construction, the state would also be concurrently installing four fish barrier projects.

Roark said if it were any other type of project, they would wait until the bypass was built, but WSDOT is under a federal court injunction to restore 90% of the fish habitat by 2030.

"We cannot kick these jobs down the road."

He said it will take a couple of years to build the fish barriers and it will affect traffic in Belfair.

"The good news is we might have some better intersections when we're done in some of these locations," Roark said.

The barriers will be installed on state Route 3, MP 23.94, unnamed tributary to Deveraux Creek, state Route 3, MP 25.31, Sweetwater Creek, state Route 3, MP 26.26 Mindy Creek, state Route 3, MP 26.4 unnamed tributary to Union River.

The construction is also expected to start in 2026.

MacEwen put a positive spin on the news.

"We're getting close to finishing this," he said.