PORT ANGELES — An upcoming stormwater project that will involve tearing up a lane of First Street downtown will take longer than previously expected, Port Angeles Downtown Association members were told Wednesday.
The project on First Street from Valley to Laurel streets, likely to start in late February or early March, was planned to be finished by Memorial Day (May 30) in order to lessen impacts on nearby businesses.
Glenn Cutler, city public works and utilities director, told eight downtown association members during a meeting at Sterling Impressions Photography that the project will likely extend “three to four weeks after that.”
No one objected to the new schedule.
The issue, Cutler said, is soil.
The dirt underneath some areas of the road is too fine to support the concrete slab underneath when workers cut into it, Cutler and city engineer Mike Puntenney explained.
As a result, portions of the slabs will have to be completely rebuilt. The additional work will extend the length of the project and add between $300,000 and $600,000 to the cost of the project, Puntenney said.
The total projected cost of the project is between $1.5 million to $2 million, he said.
The National Park Service is picking up most of the tab, with $225,000 for paving coming from the city. The additional cost will be the park service’s responsibility, Cutler said.
The project falls under the park service’s purview because, as unlikely as it may sound, it’s part of the Elwha River restoration effort.
When the river’s two dams come down, additional silt will raise the riverbed and, as a result, the water table for the Lower Elwha Klallam reservation. The higher water table is expected to make the tribe’s septic tanks unusable.
To mitigate that problem, the reservation will be connected with the city’s sewer system.
Since the sewage could exacerbate the city’s sewage overflow problem, the park service has agreed to pay for a stormwater separation project to offset the tribe’s contribution of effluent. Stormwater flowing into the city’s sewer system is the main cause of the overflows.
A new 18-inch stormwater pipe will be placed under the southside lane of First Street between Valley and Laurel streets.
Work will occur from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. at least during weekdays, Puntenney said.
Both lanes of the road will be open during the other 12 hours of the day, he said, though portions of the southside lane will be filled in with gravel or covered with steel plates.
Along with the new stormwater collection system, the project will also result in both lanes between Valley and Laurel streets being repaved, with a layer of fog seal placed on the road between Laurel and Lincoln streets; bike lanes being added; and the brick crosswalks being replaced with concrete stamped with a brick pattern.
Barb Frederick, downtown association executive director, said she is not too concerned with the project “because the sidewalks will be open, and people will be able to get to the businesses.”
Frederick added, “We are all looking forward to it being done, and at least the streets are going to be repaved, and that’s a good thing.”
Cutler said downtown was selected for the project because, due to its density, it has a high amount of stormwater entering the sewer system.
To alleviate its sewage overflow problem, the city is going to use a large tank it acquired from Rayonier Inc. last November as a temporary storage site.
That project is estimated to cost about $40 million.
Cutler said it would cost more for the city to solve that problem by disconnecting stormwater from all of the city’s sewers.
“There isn’t enough [area] in town to capture enough stormwater to be cost-effective,” he said, “versus the Rayonier property and the 5-million-gallon tank.”
Downtown will also be impacted by the project to eliminate sewage overflows.
A schedule has not been set, but sometime after the Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival in October, large pits will be dug over the Waterfront Trail near Hollwyood Beach and at the intersection of Railroad Avenue and Oak Street so that new sewer pipes can be laid into the city’s industrial waterline.
The new pipes will be connected with the tank, adjacent to the city’s wastewater treatment plant.
Cutler has said he plans to keep work on that project out of downtown Memorial Day and mid- to late October.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.