AGNEW — After months of construction and detours, Clallam County officials announced that McDonald Creek bridge on Old Olympic Highway tentatively will reopen on Tuesday, May 1.
Pat McElroy, Clallam County bridge project engineer, said Friday that crews with Orion Marine Contractors Inc. of Tacoma need to paint stripes on the road and the bridge with pigmented sealer before reopening.
“The painting is weather-sensitive but the weather is looking good, so we are hopefully optimistic,” he said.
“There are various other small items, but as we get closer to that date we are becoming more confident.”
County staff said community members, organizers of the Agnew Helpful Neighbors and Clallam County commissioners are arranging a ribbon cutting this coming Saturday, but a time had not been announced by Friday.
Crews closed the 1957 bridge on July 5 last year to replace it with a more stable and wider bridge.
Original staff estimates set the project to take about nine months and cost upward of $3.07 million while leaving a portion of Old Olympic Highway unavailable.
Orion Marine Contractors Inc. was granted additional work days in May due to rain and snow fall in March. McElroy estimated then that they would finish in mid-April.
County officials have encouraged the use of alternate routes such as U.S. Highway 101 and backtracking on Kitchen-Dick Road or Shore Road.
County engineer Ross Tyler said previously that county staff is avoiding assigning specific detours but they are not deterring people from using roads such as Barr Road and Lewis Road.
“We’re not saying they can’t — we don’t want to direct any more traffic to those minimal roads more than we have to,” he said.
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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.
