PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles City Council has inked a contract for upgrades to the Peabody Street sidewalk and Civic Field.
Council members voted 6-0 Nov. 19 to award a $172,390 bid to Simmons & Sons Contracting Inc. of Montesano for the two projects.
Crews will remove tree stumps and roots from the east side of Peabody Street between Third and Fifth streets, install a new sidewalk and driveway entrances and plant new trees appropriate for the location, city officials said.
The contractor also will install an Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant access ramp at Civic Field.
“Our hope is that we achieve some efficiencies, not just in bid materials but also paying a contractor to mobilize one time as opposed to twice and things like that,” Public Works and Utilities Director Thomas Hunter told the council last week.
“If we were to bid these projects separately, you’re going to see an increase in the mobilization cost and you could end up paying the same, if not more.”
Simmons & Sons Contracting was the lowest bidder out of five that submitted proposals, according to a staff memo. The engineer’s estimate for the two projects was $160,960.
Nine trees were planted on the strip between Peabody Street and the sidewalk between Third and Fifth streets in the early 2000s, Hunter said in a memo.
The trees were removed in 2017 because the roots were causing damage and the limbs were impacting overhead lines, Hunter said.
“This project will correct the damaged infrastructure from the tree growth and replace the trees,” Hunter said.
A previous study identified the need for an ADA-compliant access ramp at Civic Field, home of Port Angeles High School Roughriders teams and the Port Angeles Lefties summer collegiate baseball team.
“The more time I spend at Civic Field, the more I realize how much work it needs to be an asset for everyone in our community,” Deputy Mayor Kate Dexter said at the council meeting.
Hunter said the contractor and the city will pick a time to do the work based on weather and availability.
“That could happen anytime between now and April,” Hunter said Wednesday.
“It’s essentially a winter contract where once we believe that we have the right window, we will then issue the notice to proceed.”
Mayor Sissi Bruch said the Peabody Street project was “long overdue.”
“It’s beginning to restore a little bit of our tree canopy because we are replacing some of those trees,” Bruch said at the council meeting.
“I still think we’ve got a long ways to go in that, but I love the fact that we are starting.”
The base bid for the Peabody Street project was $76,920 and the additive bid for the ADA accessibility improvements at Civic Field was $95,470.
“I appreciate the bigger-picture thinking moving forward so that we are able to capture efficiencies where they exist,” Dexter said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
