PORT ANGELES — The Hurricane Ridge Road construction project has been reduced from two years to one, acting Olympic National Park Superintendent Sue McGill told the Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce on Monday.
Repaving the 50-year-old road and installing power lines beneath it was slated to last two construction seasons beginning May 4.
“We have worked with the Federal Highway Administration and the contractors to reduce it down to one year,” she told the audience of about 65 people meeting at the Port Angeles CrabHouse restaurant at the Red Lion Hotel.
She added that a new, yet-unnamed superintendent — to replace Bill Laitner, who retired last year — could be announced in the next two weeks and begin work in May.
McGill, a native Washingtonian who has been assigned to Olympic since 2002, gave chamber members a broad view of how the park fared through winter storms and the beginning stages of spring cleanup.
McGill showed pictures of the damage.
