Travelers can expect more detours over next few weeks on Carlsborg Road

By Matthew Nash

Olympic Peninsula News Group

CARLSBORG — Clallam County officials say a few more weeks of major traffic impacts are ahead along Carlsborg Road as crews continue work on the Carlsborg sewer project.

Meggan Uecker, solid waste coordinator for the county, said starting today, Pacific Civil and Infrastructure’s crews will begin installing the force main for the project, the third phase of the project, from the Olympic Discovery Trail to Smithfield Drive.

Construction on this portion of the project will last about three weeks depending on weather, and travelers can expect more detours, she said.

Uecker said this phase likely will have the biggest impact for travelers along Carlsborg Road.

“We appreciate people’s patience, as many people live and work along here,” she said.

“We’re trying to avoid complete blockages, but a few times we’ve had to close portions of the road. We’re trying to make those as short as possible.”

Uecker said county staff and employees with the construction firm continue to go door to door to tell neighbors and businesses when they’ll be impacted most.

“We know it’s been trying, but we should be moving off Carlsborg Road and on to some of the side streets soon,” she said.

On U.S. Highway 101, the westbound right lane at milepost 262 will remain closed through the end of this month, too, Uecker said.

It initially was set to reopen Sept. 9, but a redesign of the project underneath the highway bridge over the Dungeness River required fabrication of new parts, she said.

“We’ve been working with the contractor to move it along as quickly as possible,” she said.

Overall, the $9.025 million project remains on schedule to be “substantially complete” by April 1, 2017, Uecker said. It will connect the Carlsborg pump station to the city of Sequim via the bridge to a collection system at Grant Road and then on to the city’s Water Reclamation Facility.

Uecker said the project’s first installation was the gravity line collection system, followed by placing lateral piping from the gravity mains along Carlsborg Road to property lines.

She said the third phase, the force main, pushes sewage toward the highway bridge over the Dungeness River and eventually to the city’s facility.

The fourth phase includes installing sub-mains and tapping onto other roads such as Business Park Loop and East Runnion Road.

Uecker said homeowners and businesses will be able to connect to the system tentatively by March 2017.

Going forward, no new septic tanks will be allowed in the Carlsborg Urban Growth Area, but homeowners and businesses aren’t required to connect if they have a functioning septic tank. However, new construction must connect to the system, and when a property changes ownership, it must connect within one year.

Uecker said side sewers will be required for those who connect, which they can coordinate with the county and its contractor or a separate contractor.

The county’s contractor set the price at $21.75 per foot of 4-inch sewer line and $2,200 to decommission a septic system.

A connection fee is required, which Uecker said is discounted through March to $500 per equivalent residential unit, or $1,500 approximately by March 2019, or $8,000 after then.

Clallam County commissioners haven’t adopted a user fee system yet for the project, but a financial plan for the sewer system has been developed and adopted.

Initial user fees would be a base rate of $26 and $8.66 per 100 cubic feet of monthly water consumption for residences and the same for commercial/government customers except rates would multiply by the number of residential units each user represents.

Uecker said the average monthly sewer bill for a residence would be about $70.

So far, about 20 properties have signed up to connect, she said.

Uecker recommends homeowners and business owners contact her at 360-417-2441 or muecker@co.clallam.wa.us prior to March to apply, with questions and/or to let her know of plans not to connect.

For more information on the project, visit www. clallam.net/PublicWorks/CarlsborgSewer.html.

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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.