PORT ANGELES — Clallam County has selected a consultant to design the long-planned Dungeness River levee setback project.
Staff has begun negotiating a scope of work and a contract with Shannon & Wilson, a Seattle-based geotechnical and environmental firm, officials said Monday.
Clallam County is leading a multi-agency effort to move back the east dike of the constricted lower Dungesss River south of Anderson Road.
Doing so will restore some 110 acres of floodplain from river mile 0.8 to 1.8.
The $12 million state- and federally-funded project will reduce flood risks, improve habitat for salmon and other species in the floodplain and improve water quality for shellfish in Dungeness Bay, county officials have said.
Construction is scheduled to begin in 2017.
The first step for the consultant is to develop three options for Towne Road, a portion of which runs through the project area, county Habitat Biologist Cathy Lear told commissioners Monday.
The preliminary options are to disconnect the road through the area, place the road on top of the new levee or rebuild the road above the floodplain to allow floodwaters to pass underneath.
Commissioners will gather public input on the options before making a decision sometime this summer.
“We want to do some community outreach,” Lear said in a board work session.
Clallam County has been acquiring land in the project area for the past decade. Those parcels have been replanted.
“There’s a young forest on its way right now,” Lear said.
A recreational component — probably a path along the river — will be included in the effort. The existing Dungeness River dike is popular with dog owners, hikers and other recreationalists.
The area north of Anderson Road will not be impacted by the project.
Clallam County has been working since the 1990s on the Dungeness River floodplain project.
A levee setback would eliminate the need for repairs in the aging, existing levee that was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the 1960s.
County partners in the project include the Army Corps, Jamestown S’Klallam tribe and state departments of Ecology and Fish and Wildlife.
Information on the lower Dungeness River levee setback project is available on the county’s website, www.clallam.net.
Click on the Department of Community Development link and find the project under “quick links.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
