After almost two years of work, the widening project from Kitchen-Dick Road to Shore Road is nearly complete.

The approximate 3.5-mile stretch fully opened this week after a partial opening on Saturday, Nov. 8, for line painting. At an estimated $60.5 million, the project brings four lanes from the west side of the Sequim city limits to Port Angeles’ city limits.

Crews with the Washington State Department of Transportation and contractors like Scarsella Bros., a Kent construction firm, which won the $27 million contract in December 2012, began construction in early 2013.

Planning for this stretch has been in place since the 1990s.

With a median through most of the stretch, indirect left turns are placed that use small loop roads allowing drivers to do U-turns instead of directly turning left on or off the highway.

Claudia Bingham Baker, communications manager of the WSDOT Olympic region, said “indirect left turns reduce the potential for intersection collisions, especially “T-bone” and rear-end crashes.”

In a 2011 Gazette report by former reporter Amanda Winters called “Highway of Havoc,” she revealed that from Jan. 1, 2001, to Dec. 31, 2010 —  304 car wrecks occurred in this stretch of highway with 216 people injured and another eight killed.

The indirect left turns are located at the intersections of Shore Road, Barr Road, Dryke Road/Pierson Road, and at Kitchen-Dick Road.

While the project may look complete, Bingham Baker said it won’t be finished until the spring of next year with final paving of the new lanes taking place in warmer and drier weather. In the winter there will be some single lane closures for landscaping and sign work but a majority of the work will carry over to spring, she said.

Due to the area still being under construction, the stretch from Blue Mountain Road-Carlsborg Road/Hooker Road remains 45 mph on the highway.

Businesses weigh in

Although the road construction may be wrapping up for a few months while winter weather passes, many of the businesses concentrated near Dryke Road anticipate having to endure lingering impacts of the ongoing road closures.

Nathan Church, general manager of Frankfurth Auto Body & Towing, just west of Dryke Road, said since the Gazette spoke with him in June business has been pretty miserable.

“(The construction has) made a major impact in our business,” he said.

“The whole thing sucked. Every time they’d shut down the highway, you could tell a difference when the cars were let go in front of us or not.”

During construction, Church said they’ve tried different advertising techniques but they’ve had to lay off some people due to the decline in customers.

When the road was shut down, for a few hours up to a day at a time, Church said it was an inconvenience to staff and customers because they didn’t know when it was going to close due to no communication between businesses and contractors/WSDOT.

“We’re hopeful going forward,” Church said. “It’s finished for the time being so hopefully people will feel inclined to stop by.”

Frankfurth Auto Body & Towing’s neighbors Christian Carpenter Auto Center Inc. say they have experienced negative impacts from the highway construction.

“It’s been terrible and I can tell you business is off,” said Leslie Carpenter, owner of Christian Carpenter Auto Center. “It’s been bleak.”

Traditionally October is one of the busiest months for Carpenter, but she said that was not the case this year. Looking ahead to the spring, Carpenter traditionally expects an increase in business, but is concerned because springtime coincides with continuation of the highway construction.

“We’ve had virtually no drive-through traffic and that’s a huge loss for us,” Carpenter said. “We haven’t been informed about anything and the access has been confusing.”

Given the decrease in business, Carpenter is down one full-time employee and one part-time, and is not alone in making such adjustments. Eric Schwartz, owner of Olympic Restaurant Equipment Inc., also is down one employee and has reduced staff hours.

“It changes from week to week but my showroom sales have consistently been down 50-70 percent,” Schwartz said. “I know that’s only a portion of my business, but it’s a big portion.”

To counteract the negative impacts of the road construction, Schwartz has been making adjustments to how he does business, like creating more of an online presence, but “that doesn’t happen overnight,” he said. Many of Schwartz’s clients travel from afar, such as Port Orchard, Bremerton and Bainbridge to pick up equipment, but have no longer been coming because they aren’t sure if they’ll have access or not.

“If I had been notified of road closures or alternative routes of access, I could have let my customers know, but no one is communicating with me,” Schwartz said. “It’s not just my problem, but it’s the whole community’s and all the business’ (problem).”

Bingham Baker said WSDOT is aware of a few business owners who were unhappy with the project.

“We have been in touch with them,” she said. “We’ve opened the lanes so most of the construction is complete until the spring but we will let them know when we are out there working.”

Schwartz said he feels “there is little end in sight” and finds no comfort knowing it may be another six to eight months of disruption before the highway project is complete.

Reach Alana Linderoth at alinderoth@sequimgazette.com and Matthew Nash at mnash@sequimgazette.com.