"I don't know how familiar you are with the area, but the large roundabout to where I'd assume … 95 percent of your traffic would feed to, is getting close to capacity." Gig Harbor City Engineer Aaron Hulst said that to an apartment developer at a pre-application meeting in December 2025, as Gig Harbor Now reported this spring.
That roundabout sits at the south end of Canterwood Boulevard. Traffic from Canterwood, Borgen Boulevard, Burnham Drive and Highway 16 all passes through it. Canterwood's gate decides who drives in. It has no say over what gets built along the boulevard outside it, or over how fast the city upgrades the intersection every resident uses to reach groceries, the freeway or Tacoma. Over the past six months, public documents have answered both questions fairly clearly. Apartments are already being built outside the gate, and the city's fix for the roundabout is scheduled for construction in 2030.
What's going in along Canterwood Boulevard
Gig Harbor Now reported in April that interest in residential development is "booming" along Canterwood Boulevard and in northern Gig Harbor. One reason is that much of the city's unbuilt land lies north of this roundabout. Another is that the city's comprehensive plan, adopted in 2025, includes an upzone that quintuples the number of homes allowed per acre on land zoned B-2.
Here is the pipeline as of the most recent reporting on each project. The statuses come from Gig Harbor Now's April roundabout report, its July Timberwalk report and its business news coverage:
| Project | Scale | Status, as last reported |
|---|---|---|
| Timberwalk, formerly Trailside, at Canterwood Blvd and Baker Way | 120 apartments in six three-story buildings on 5.85 acres | Under construction since late June 2026; Rush had not given a completion date when asked, per a July 17, 2026 report |
| Gig Harbor North Annex, 11303 to 11311 Canterwood Blvd | 108 apartments, plus possible medical office or senior living | City "waiting for additional information" from the developer as of April 2026 |
| Emblem Gig Harbor, Goodnough Drive | Up to 240 apartments | Pre-application stage as of April 2026; developer did not yet own the land |
| Parr Plat, just south of Timberwalk | 8 single-family homes on 5.84 acres | Planned, per April 2026 reporting |
| Burnham Heights, west side of Highway 16 | 56 houses | Planned, per April 2026 reporting |
| Burnham Ridge, south of North Creek | 42 single-family lots on 15.25 acres | Early-stage proposal as of September 2026 |
Timberwalk is the one already changing the view. In a July report, Gig Harbor Now described Rush Companies clearing acres of forest at the corner of Baker Way and Canterwood Boulevard, land that had seemed like "the gated community's front yard." The groundwork for the project goes back further than most buyers would guess. A county hearing examiner approved a preliminary plat and a major amendment to the Canterwood master plan covering this acreage in 2005. The permits Rush needed after buying the property in 2024 did not require neighbor meetings or posted signs.
Two seconds over the line
In February 2026 the city hired David Evans and Associates to find out whether these projects would push the roundabout into what the task order called a "failure in operations." Gig Harbor defines that as an average delay of 55 seconds or more at a roundabout during the peak hour. The standard comes from the city's Connect the Gig All Modes Transportation Plan.
The study, reported by Gig Harbor Now on April 29, found failure only in a "worst case what-if-scenario." In that scenario, three apartment projects are built and generating traffic within six years, and nothing is done to manage congestion. Average delay reaches 57 seconds, two seconds past the threshold.
The average hides most of the problem. In that same model, drivers coming off westbound Highway 16 wait 82.8 seconds, and drivers entering from Borgen Boulevard wait 94.8 seconds. An intersection can pass on average while the legs people actually use at rush hour run well over the limit.
The worst case has already partly changed. One of the three modeled projects was Gig Harbor Vista Apartments, 156 units on the Swede Hill site, and a representative of Vista Residential Partners has since said the company will not pursue it. The study also left out Emblem Gig Harbor's possible 240 units across the freeway. Most of Emblem's trips into Gig Harbor North would pass through this same roundabout. Without the Vista project and with Emblem left out, the modeled scenario no longer matches the actual pipeline. The roundabout still carries every new trip from Canterwood Boulevard.
The fix moves part of the wait to Burnham Drive
The city's task order asked for "lower-cost, shorter-term and more immediately constructable" fixes. It ruled out a full interchange rebuild and replacing the roundabout with another type of intersection. The consultants recommended a signal meter on eastbound Burnham Drive, the roundabout's west approach.
Under the same three-project scenario, the meter would change peak-hour delay like this:
- Whole intersection: 57 seconds down to 9.8
- Westbound Highway 16 exit: 82.8 seconds down to 12.9
- Borgen Boulevard approach: 94.8 seconds down to 8.1
- Eastbound Burnham Drive: 4.3 seconds up to 8.9, with a queue of roughly 250 feet behind the meter
The meter works by holding back Burnham Drive traffic so the heavier approaches get gaps to enter. Burnham Drive drivers would wait about twice as long, and the study found their queue would stay short of the next roundabout to the west, roughly 680 feet away. The published figures do not include a separate number for the Canterwood Boulevard approach, so the clearest way for a Canterwood buyer to judge that leg is to drive it at the morning and evening peaks.
Where the fix lands on the calendar
At an April 30 study session, the minutes record the City Council as supportive of staff's recommendations. On June 22, 2026, the council unanimously adopted Resolution 1361, approving the 2027–2032 Six-Year Transportation Improvement Program. The program, which is posted on the city's council meeting portal, lists a new Project 16, the Borgen Boulevard/SR-16 WB Off-Ramp Metering Study. It would install a signalized meter for eastbound traffic on the Burnham Drive bridge, with detection loops on the Highway 16 off-ramp. The program budgets $800,000 for it, with design starting in 2029 and construction in 2030. A separate Burnham Dr/Borgen Blvd Corridor Study is also on the list.
Put the dates next to each other and the gap is easy to see:
- June 2026: Rush announces Timberwalk construction is "officially underway."
- Mid-November 2026: 90% plans are due for repaving and pedestrian-access work on Borgen Boulevard between Burnham Drive and Harbor Hill Drive.
- 2027: That Borgen work is built in phases.
- Fall 2027 to summer 2028: A new water main bids and then goes into construction. It will give St. Anthony's Hospital, at the north end of Canterwood Drive, a second feed in place of today's dead-end line.
- 2029: Design starts on the roundabout meter.
- 2030: The meter is scheduled for construction.
These dates come from the city's capital improvement projects updates, refreshed October 8 and October 12, 2026, and the adopted program. Construction near the roundabout comes before the meter does. The Borgen corridor will see crews in 2027, about three years before the meter's construction year.
The frontage of the apartments is also still being settled. In January, Pierce County conditioned Timberwalk on improvements along roughly 750 feet of Canterwood Boulevard, including a bike lane, a planter strip with street lighting and a 5.5-foot sidewalk. Rush appealed. It argued the 2005 approval required improvements only on the shorter Baker Way frontage and noted it had already paid $454,320 in traffic impact fees. An April settlement called for a reduced set of improvements, including conduit and junction boxes for future streetlights in place of the lights themselves. The hearing to finalize that settlement was postponed several times, most recently with a 45-day extension on July 16. The project's name also points to what may come next to it. Timberwalk sits just west of a power-line right-of-way intended to become an extension of the Cushman Trail.
What this changes about a Canterwood search
For a buyer comparing Canterwood with other parts of the peninsula, the inside of the gate is fairly predictable. What changes over the next few years is the stretch of Canterwood Boulevard outside it, and every errand and commute starts there.
That has practical consequences. A test drive on a Saturday afternoon says little about a 7:45 a.m. trip to Highway 16. Driving the roundabout at both peaks, from the Canterwood Boulevard side and from Borgen, gives a better read than any average. Homes whose daily route leaves through the Baker Way gate pass the Timberwalk site, and they will pass construction for as long as it lasts. As of the July 17 report, Rush had not answered a request for a projected completion date. Buyers who plan to stay well past 2030 face a different question than buyers on a shorter timeline. The first group may live with the meter. The second group may only live through the years before it arrives.
None of this is hidden. The traffic study, the improvement program, the capital project updates and the county appeal are all public, and Gig Harbor Now has covered each one. The pipeline will keep moving. North Annex, Emblem and Burnham Ridge were all at early stages at last report, and any of them can grow, shrink or stall before 2030.
If you're weighing a home in Canterwood and want to know how a specific street, gate or commute fits into what's being built around it, I'm glad to walk the area with you and go through the public filings together. You can reach me through Kate Diaz. Let's Connect.
