BLYN — The Jamestown S’Klallam tribe can widen U.S. Highway 101 in front of its new Country Store and a fire station, but it can’t make drivers slow down.
“We’ve requested that the speed limit be lowered to 45 [mph], but it’s fallen on deaf ears,” said Jerry Allen, assistant general manager of the 7 Cedars Casino and orchestrator of the tribe’s surrounding projects.
The tribe is about to spend $1.5 million on widening the highway — building westbound deceleration and eastbound acceleration lanes — to serve the store, gas station and a Clallam County Fire District No. 3 fire station to be built just east of the casino.
Construction should start in mid-September, Allen said.
The road work will take 10 to 12 weeks, and the buildings, he hopes, will be finished by May.
“You would think,” said Allen, “with all of this Highway 101 safety corridor talk, that [the Washington Department of Transportation] would want to reduce the speed limit.
“We’ve been fortunate to have no accidents of major consequence” around the casino, Allen added.
He considers that pure good luck.
“Let’s be proactive,” Allen said, and make the speed limit 45 mph, as it is on 101 at Discovery Bay and Carlsborg.
