PORT ANGELES — The three Clallam County commissioners unanimously approved improvements and resurfacing for almost 1 mile of Old Olympic Highway.
Tuesday’s county agenda stated that the work is expected to commence in April and be completed by June.
The project, estimated to cost a little more than $951,000, will be paid for by federal Surface Transportation Block Grant funds, county engineer Joe Donisi told the commissioners during a work session on Jan. 13.
Completing these improvements with federal funds will free up crews and their materials for roads that are not eligible for grant funding, Donisi added.
The funds will cover the improvement of the highway between mileposts 2.75 and 3.60, or roughly between Matson Road and North Barr Road, by resurfacing it, installing catch basins and completing other related work.
The project was declared to be a public necessity.
“For me, this is the bread and butter, because we’re taking care of the surface of one of the most traveled roads,” Donisi said.
The road, which was constructed sometime around 2010 or 2012, Donisi said, has never been chip sealed.
Roads are given different priority levels after visual inspection. Every two years, the engineering staff will do a surface visual inspection of every county collector road.
“We’re actually counting the number of miles of cracks in our roads,” Donisi said.
This section of the Old Olympic Highway is “one of the highest priorities,” he added.
________
Reporter Emma Maple can be reached by email at emma.maple@peninsuladailynews.com.
