Poulsbo Village awaits Seventh Avenue debut

POULSBO — Poulsbo Village patrons awaiting easier access to their favorite stores may have to wait just a little longer.

The opening of the Seventh Avenue extension connecting State Route 305 near Forest Rock Lane with the much-visited shopping center hasn’t quite happened yet, but the anticipated thoroughfare is close to making its debut.

City officials said just a few more checklist items are needed for completion. The road has been paved and is mostly ready for use; street lights will be installed in a second phase of work. The project was originally expected to be finishing in November.

Mike Lund, senior field inspector for Poulsbo’s Public Works, said he gets three to four calls a day regarding the extension’s opening. Though there isn’t a set date, he said the opening should be soon.

“There are some logistics that have to happen prior to actually being able to put traffic on it,” he said.

Mayor Kathryn Quade said the city is working to open the road as soon as possible so that citizens can put rubber to the road on Seventh. Now it’s just a matter of tying up some right-of-way paperwork.

The newly paved roadway will no doubt make traveling less of a headache for Poulsbo Village shoppers, and business owners, too, are looking forward to the wait-time reprieve. Shop owners in Poulsbo Village have cited desires to see easier access to their business and smoother flows of traffic in and out of the parking lot.

Property manager Beverly Lyon is hoping the extension will open soon. With non-sequenced traffic lights on unfinished State Route 305 and increased traffic due to the opening of Taprock Northwest Grill, the intersection of Seventh Avenue and Liberty Road is seeing major back-up trouble.

“We desperately want Seventh Avenue to get open,” she said, adding often, because traffic lights don’t sense the number of cars waiting to leave the Village, cars are lined up for a length equivalent to a couple blocks. “If Seventh Avenue was open, a lot of that traffic would be going that way.”

Poulsbo Villagers aren’t the only ones waiting for the SR 305 project to wrap up. Despite the January opening of the new high-occupancy vehicle lanes, a final overlay is still needed, and the project itself isn’t expected for completion until late spring or early summer.

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