PORT ANGELES — A shift in federal and state transportation funds would allow Clallam County to repave a bumpy 2-mile stretch of Old Olympic Highway three years sooner than planned.
The three commissioners Tuesday will consider calling a June 17 public hearing to amend the six-year Transportation Improvement Program to pave the thoroughfare from the Dungeness River bridge to Mariott Avenue at the Sequim city limit beginning in September.
“It’s a simple repaving,” county Transportation Program Manager Rich James told commissioners Tuesday.
“The surface is just giving out in several areas.”
Crews will grind asphalt, backfill areas of failing subgrade and overlay the road with new asphalt, according to a project prospectus.
The $993,900 project would be covered by $859,723 in federal Surface Transportation Program funds and a $134,177 county match. It is currently listed in the six-year road plan as two projects slated for 2017.
The county was able to use federal funds to expedite the Dungeness River to Mariott Avenue paving project because it received state funding from the Rural Arterial Program to repave Old Olympic Highway between U.S. Highway 101 and the Siebert Creek bridge.
Another segment of Old Olympic Highway — Gunn-Barr roads to the McDonald Creek bridge in Agnew — is being widened and resurfaced this year as part of a multiyear county effort to widen the two-lane road to 40 feet to include 8-foot shoulders on both sides.
Work hasn’t begun yet. It is expected to be finished in October.
________
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
