PORT ANGELES — Construction projects on U.S. Highway 101 ramped up this week, causing delays for drivers traveling around Lake Crescent and between Port Angeles and Sequim.
Rock-scaling work in the $27.5 million project to rehabilitate 12 miles of U.S. Highway 101 around Lake Crescent began Monday.
While crews are performing rock scaling, both lanes will be closed for roughly 20 minutes, said Penny Wagner, Olympic National Park spokeswoman. Road work is Monday through Friday. It can begin two hours after sunrise and must stop two hours before sunset.
Any debris that has fallen on the roadway over the containment system will then be cleared with equipment. When it is clear, the flaggers will send traffic from one direction, followed by the other.
Concrete barriers will stay up for the duration of the work which means there will be traffic signals controlling the one-lane area after work hours and over the weekend so expect short delays for alternating single-lane traffic.
Also on Monday, the state Department of Transportation began work on a fish passage project at Matriotti Creek on Highway 101.
Drivers traveling between Sequim and Port Angeles can expect a reduced 40 mph speed limit and a single lane of traffic in both directions of the highway around the clock, the state department said. It is expected to be completed in the fall.
On the East Beach Road portion of the Lake Crescent project, culvert installation that began July 13 is now complete, Wagner said. Excavation work is in progress. Driver can expect delays of up to 30 minutes.
Today, the Elwha River Bridge on Highway 101 will undergo a scheduled inspection. Drivers can expect single-lane alternating traffic at the bridge during morning hours and possibly into mid-afternoon.
The effort to replace the 90-year-old bridge began in October after officials discovered the two bridge piers sat atop gravel and not bedrock. The now-wild river was eating away at the riverbed under the bridge.
Transportation crews surrounded the piers with rip rap and plan to add more sometime this summer.
The last inspection in May revealed that the bridge was stable. Transportation continues to monitor the bridge remotely and has automated systems in place to alert officials if conditions change in between inspections, the department said in a press release.
Bridge engineers are designing a new bridge on a new alignment. The bridge is expected to be 36-feet-wide with 12-foot lanes for vehicles and 6-foot pedestrian lanes.
The estimated cost is about $29.5 million.
On or around Wednesday, East Beach Road between Log Cabin Resort and the intersection with Joyce-Piedmont/East Beach Road will be reduced to one lane, Wagner said. Drivers can expect short delays for alternating single-lane traffic with traffic signals or flaggers.
On Aug. 7, the Log Cabin Creek culvert replacement work will close East Beach Road to through traffic. Work is scheduled to be completed for the culvert by the end of work hours Aug. 18.
Message boards on Highway 101 and state Highway 112 will inform drivers of closure and access up to Log Cabin Resort or Spruce Railroad Trail during this time.
Transportation also reported that it has nearly finished the state Highway 112 chip seal project and has begun work on the Highway 112 fish barrier project on Nordstrom Creek.
Crews are building a single-lane detour around the construction site, and expect to switch traffic onto it soon, Transportation said.
Once the switch is in place, drivers will encounter single-lane alternating traffic controlled by a signal until the project is finished this fall.
