PORT TOWNSEND — City officials are reassuring people that it’s safe to walk on the sidewalks.
Earlier this year, the city hired a private company to search for hidden holes and voids under downtown’s sidewalks with a ground-penetrating radar.
The results showed there were not as many problem spots as the city had previously estimated.
“It’s not as much as we thought,” said City Manager David Timmons.
“What we found is there are voids where we expected, primarily on Taylor and Water streets.”
Almost all of downtown Taylor street and a few sections of Water and Washington streets were found to have nothing underneath the ground people walk upon.
Public Safety Analyst Ken Horvath said that the sidewalk are safe for walkers.
“Nobody is going to drop through a hole,” Horvath said.
“But the question has always been, could you put an outrigger from a fire truck on it, or in an earthquake, would they fail?”
A magnitude 3.6 quake on July 30, which was centered under the Strait of Juan de Fuca three miles north of Port Townsend, reminded city officials of that question.
“That earthquake was relatively far out,” Horvath said.
“We didn’t see any problems, but depending on how big an earthquake, they possibly would fail.
“That is why we are working on the grants.”
The city has applied for two Federal Emergency Management Administration hazardous mitigation grants to pay for permanent reinforcement of the sidewalks.
They are being considered on the federal level.
“The state has recommended the Taylor street grant be funded, and now we are waiting for the feds, to see if funding is available,” Horvath said.
