PORT ANGELES — Except for final landscaping at the Deer Park rest area east of Port Angeles, the Clallam County underpass project is complete, a county engineer said.
“We’re up and running,” Associate Engineer Joe Donisi said.
“Basically, the project is completed. We are moving on.”
The underpass replaces two U.S. Highway 101 intersections by connecting Deer Park Road and Buchanan Drive.
Left turns across the four-lane highway, which have caused several fatal wrecks, are now restricted.
Motorists instead are using a new county road called Deer Park Loop to get from one side of the highway to the other.
“We are not planning a formal ceremony or anything like that at Deer Park Road,” Donisi said.
“We’ve got some additional work to do over in the rest area, mainly in terms of some landscaping, that we’re going to have the Master Gardeners help us with.”
The Clallam County Master Gardeners, a Washington State University Extension program, will spruce up the scenic overlook and new rest area adjacent to the underpass at the crest of the Morse Creek S-curve.
Crews broke ground on the federally funded safety project in August 2013.
The county hired Scarsella Bros. of Kent as the primary contractor on a $4.8 million contract.
Donisi said the project came in on budget and was a “success in many ways.”
The underpass replaced two dangerous intersections without impeding the flow of highway traffic, he said.
At one point, the county and the state Department of Transportation considered a stop light at Deer Park.
The county and the state have worked together on the underpass project as well as the ongoing widening of U.S. Highway 101 between Kitchen-Dick and Shore roads.
A half-dozen county roads had to be rebuilt at their intersections with the highway as part of the $27.1 million state project to widen the highway to four lanes on the 3.5-mile corridor between Port Angeles and Sequim.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.