County cuts speed limit on north Johnson Point Road to 30 mph; draft road plan lists culvert work near Woodard Bay and Henderson Inlet

The speed limit on the north end of Johnson Point Road NE is dropping from 35 mph to 30 mph, Thurston County Public Works says.

The change covers the stretch from 92nd Avenue NE to Johnson Point Loop NE. It was one of six speed limit changes adopted after an Oct. 6 public hearing before the Board of County Commissioners, according to the department's speed limits page.

From 25 to 30. The county first proposed a deeper cut. A legal notice for a hearing originally set for Sept. 29 listed the Johnson Point segment at 25 mph. The notice for the rescheduled Oct. 6 hearing listed 30 mph, and 30 is the limit the county says was adopted. The county's records do not explain the change from 25 to 30.

The county also has not said when new signs will go up or what prompted the change. Its speed limits page says limits between 20 and 50 mph are set through traffic engineering studies, usually near the speed at which 85% of drivers travel.

The other roads on the list are 196th Avenue SW, Driftwood Valley Road SE, Gallagher Cove Road NW, Waldrick Road SE and a section of Marvin Road SE between 19th Avenue SE and Union Mills Road SE, south of Interstate 5.

The hearing notices list County Engineer Matt Unzelman, 360-867-2335, as the contact.

On the road plan. Separately, the county's draft 2027-2032 Transportation Improvement Program names several projects nearby. Public Works says it will bring the plan to commissioners for adoption in late 2026.

The draft lists a fish-passage project on Libby Road NE, about 0.7 mile south of Woodard Bay Road, where a culvert under the road blocks fish in a tributary of Woodard Creek. It schedules $15,000 in 2027 and $175,000 in 2028 from state Department of Ecology funds. The plan puts the total cost at about $3.5 million and lists the project as not fully funded.

On Kellogg Drive NE, at a tributary of Henderson Inlet, the plan calls for a study to choose a long-term replacement for a failed 3-foot culvert. The plan says the culvert was scheduled for a temporary replacement by the end of 2024. It sets aside $50,000 for the study in 2030-32.

The plan's 20-year list includes widening South Bay Road NE to two or three lanes from 33rd Lane NE to the Chehalis Western Trail, estimated at $6 million. It also includes $4 million for more improvements at the Johnson Point Road-Hawks Prairie Road intersection and $3 million for the Marvin Road NE-56th Avenue NE intersection. The list gives cost estimates but no construction years.

The plan lists the roundabout at Johnson Point, Hawks Prairie and South Bay roads as completed, at an estimated cost of $2.89 million.