PORT ANGELES — A stormwater project on First Street downtown will cost less than previously expected.
The Port Angeles City Council awarded a nearly $1.2 million construction contract to Road Construction Northwest of Renton on Tuesday.
The amount is about $45,000 lower than the last estimate.
The project involves installing a new stormwater pipe under the southside lane of First Street between Valley and Laurel streets.
Sections of the lane will be closed as workers install the pipe, likely from late February or early March through June.
Work will be done from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
The council also awarded a $136,513 construction management contract for the project to Northwestern Territories Inc. of Port Angeles. Zenovic & Associates of Port Angeles and Exeltech of Lacey are subcontractors on the management contract.
The National Park Service is picking up the tab for the construction contract because the project is part of the Elwha River restoration effort.
The project falls under the park service’s purview because dam removal requires the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe to be connected to the city’s sewer system.
The effluent from the tribe would contribute to more sewage overflows in the city — and the new pipe, which will remove stormwater from the sewer system, is intended to offset that impact.
The tribe needs the sewer because when the river’s two dams come down, additional silt will raise the riverbed and, as a result, the water table for the reservation. The higher water table is expected to make the tribe’s septic tanks unusable.
Paving both lanes
The city has budgeted $225,000 for paving both lanes of First Street downtown after the pipe is installed. It also will add bike lanes.
Critics of the city’s plan to use a large tank at the former Rayonier mill site to resolve its sewage-overflow problem say it should solve the problem by disconnecting stormwater, a major contributor to overflows, elsewhere.
Glenn Cutler, city public works and utilities director, said the city isn’t relying on disconnects to solve the problem because it would cost more.
The city’s plan costs about $40 million. Staff members have said that separating enough stormwater from the sewers to solve the problem would cost more than $60 million.
It’s fairly easy, Cutler said, to remove a lot of stormwater from the sewers downtown because nearly all of the water that falls in the area goes into the sewer.
That’s not the same elsewhere around the city, Cutler said.
“If I had a larger concentration area, it would make sense,” he said.
Cutler said the city will continue to look at stormwater disconnect efforts whenever feasible, but it won’t rely on them to solve the overflow problem.
Previously, the city added new stormwater pipes when it built The Gateway transit center, he said.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
