PORT ANGELES – Clallam County officials will meet with state Department of Transportation managers today to try to span a funding gap for a new Elwha River Road bridge.
Next week, county commissioners will receive details on a scaled-back remodeling of the county jail.
Bids on both projects exceeded engineers’ estimates when they were opened – the bridge bids by $5.5 million on June 5, the jail bids by $1.1 million April 3.
Despite one letter writer’s suggestion to Peninsula Daily News, keeping the 94-year-old bridge to carry only the Olympic Discovery Trail isn’t an option, according to Craig Jacobs, county public works director.
The span is deteriorating so badly that it won’t support even its own weight in about five years, he said.
Moreover, it would cost about $3 million to tear down, bringing the cost of no bridge to around $4.5 million, including pre-construction money that already has been spent.
