PORT TOWNSEND — A meandering new stretch of Larry Scott Memorial Trail has been cut near Cape George Road and is nearing completion, a county Public Works officials said Tuesday.
“The contract is up by the end of the month, so we’ll have it done by then,” Bruce Laurie, county engineering services manager, said Thursday.
Leavitt Trucking Inc. of Port Townsend is constructing the 2,360-foot trail that extends from Nelson’s Landing Road westward.
Part of the trail wraps around a future parking lot just off Cape George Road, where pedestrians, cyclists and equestrians can leave their vehicles behind.
The newly carved trail runs gently downhill from the parking lot site.
The project will bring the Larry Scott Memorial Trail section of Olympic Discovery Trail in Port Townsend and Jefferson County to 3.6 miles.
Grading of the trail is almost complete. It will receive a top layer of crushed and compacted granite before the $175,000 non-motorized trail segment is opened to the public.
“It’s another milestone in the whole trail,” Laurie said of the project that began in mid-September.
Next step a mile long
Meanwhile, work is expected to begin next year on the next mile-long trail link from Nelson’s Landing Road to state Highway 20.
The county has applied for grant funding from the Interagency Committee for Outdoor Recreation.
The agency, established by voters who passed Initiative 215 in 1964, provides investment of public funds in parks, trails, beaches, boating facilities, wildlife habitat and natural areas.
The Interagency Committee for Outdoor Recreation helps finance recreation and conservation projects throughout the state.