The state Department of Transportation might be closing the books on the Sequim bypass project but Councilor Paul McHugh said it isn't finished and probably never will be.

"The book isn't closed on the bypass until we get the rest aream," he said.

"The rest area was funded, not just prioritized. I respect that DOT doesn't build projects for communities that don't want them.

"But I believed then and now that (the rest stop) was going to be critical to completion of the interchange."



Earmarked

for Deer Park

McHugh continued:

"We still need to complete the Simdars interchange. It's unfortunate that the council declined to allow completion of the rest area because that would have created traffic conditions that required the interchange."

Now that the rest area will be built east of Port Angeles at Deer Park, those road improvements are being made there instead, he said, part of a Deer Park Road underpass of U.S. Highway 101.

"Thanks to short-sightedness on behalf of the council, they have left the city without the very critical transportation improvements. It's just one more in a long line of ill-advised decisions made by this council in the past 18 months," McHugh said.

After the bypass was built, the Simdars Road interchange with U.S. Highway 101 never was finished. That means drivers in the city's east end can neither enter the highway westbound nor exit it eastbound.

In an April 15, 2008, letter to WDOT Secretary Paula Hammond, the council expressed concern about the noise, air and light pollution and the security issues for the residents near the proposed rest area.

The letter expressed the council's support for transferring the project's funding to the Deer Park area east of Port Angeles.



Simdars no priority

State Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, said at the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce's Sept. 8 meeting that the Simdars interchange isn't on anyone's priority list for funding.

The Peninsula Regional Transportation Planning Organization doesn't have the project on its priority list and it would go on the bottom anyway if added now, he said.

McHugh said the council pursued the rest area because the area had the infrastructure and it would create a reason for people to stop in Sequim.

Most people also were convinced that without the rest area there was no chance of the interchange being completed, he said.



'Darn unfortunate'

"We were very, very fortunate to get the bypass. The traffic was destroying our town.

"It was darn unfortunate that we weren't smart enough to hang onto the rest area to complete the interchange."

Councilor Ken Hays disagreed.

"It wasn't necessary to keep Sequim alive. It was a pet project of Jim Bay. I have no idea how it came back to life.

"The rest stop was just never a factor. The state never saw it that way," he said.

Getting rid of the rest stop hasn't done Sequim any harm and may actually have improved the town's situation, Hays said.