BY PEPPER FISHER
SEQUIM – In 2022 we reported that the budgeted $35 million was in place to design and construct what the City of Sequim calls the Simdars Road Interchange and Bypass project along Highway 101, designed to improve safety and reduce traffic volumes.
Four years later we can report that the wheels of progress ground to a halt on the Simdars Interchange, and construction is not likely to begin any time soon. But Sequim officials assure us they’re working on it.
The money for the project was budgeted by the Washington State Dept. of Transportation (WSDOT) as part of the $17 billion Move Ahead Washington transportation package approved by the state legislature in 2022. However, during the 2025 legislative session, the funding was pushed way out to the year 2031.
But rather than wait another 5 years or more to get things going, Sequim officials, with endorsements from the State, Clallam County and the Jamestown Tribe, this week applied for a federal BUILD Grant, funds that are earmarked to be used for surface transportation projects with significant local or regional impact, but which are more difficult to fund through other grant programs.
Sequim Public Works Director Paul Bucich told KONP that the conceptual design for the interchange and bypass was completed, but the legislature now requires that larger projects like this one must be designed using Complete Streets planning, which means all forms of mobility have to be considered, including pedestrians, cyclists, etc.
On top of that, the City has now determined that the project on that portion of the highway has to include Whitefeather Way, which leads to John Wayne Marina, possibly the future site of a major residential building project.
Bucich says the cost of the combined projects is unknown, but if they get the state funding they’re seeking for final design at Simdars and a feasibility study on the bypass road, that will tell them the true cost of that portion.
We’ll bring you updates as they become available.
(WSDOT illustration shows one proposed solution to the Simdars-area issues)