PORT ANGELES — A southtown expressway and bridges on Fifth Street over Tumwater and Valley creeks were a few of the ideas discussed by the City Council last week in its work session on the city’s capital facilities plan.
The City Council will update the plan — which mostly covers the construction of, or improvements to, city facilities and infrastructure — at the end of June, and public hearings are scheduled for June 2 and June 16.
The plan is a prioritized list of roughly 200 projects, none of which are guaranteed funding.
A few of the high priority projects include alley paving, replacing the roof on the Vern Burton Memorial Community Center, an International Waterfront Promenade, The Gateway transit center, Elwha dam mitigation, a west side fire station and rip rap repair on Ediz Hook.
The most expensive project for 2009 is work on the city’s combined sewer overflow project, which is listed at $1.15 million. The city is using state loans to pay for the project, which would eliminate, or nearly eliminate, sewage from overflowing into Port Angeles Harbor and the Strait of Juan de Fuca during heavy rainfall.
A southtown expressway, which would be an alternative route to Lauridsen Boulevard without taking First Street, is listed as having a priority rating of 45. A rating of 1 is the highest, and the project may be bumped up the list due to the council discussion.
“The downtown corridor is just murder with Highway 101,” said City Council member Don Perry at the Tuesday work session.
City Council member Larry Williams brought up the idea of building bridges on Fifth Street if grant funding becomes available.
The city can only receive state and federal grant funding for infrastructure projects if they are listed in the capital facilities plan. The projects within the plan are considered “shovel ready,” city staff said.
Williams said having a second set of bridges would prevent the traffic problems the city had while the Eighth Street bridges were being replaced.
“The key to it is, if money falls out of the sky in another stimulus package out there, if it’s not on the list, then we are not going to get it,” he said.
Included in the plan, with a priority rating of 4, is an assessment of needed upgrades for Civic Field.
The study is estimated to cost $20,000, but the upgrades themselves are expected to cost about $2 million, said Glenn Cuter, city public works and utilities director.
Also in the plan are repairs to the Ediz Hook dock and to Waterfront and Olympic Discovery trails that were damaged during the winter storms.
Costs for the trail repair projects are listed at $960,000 for 2010, with no costs set for this year.
After grants, the city would pay $340,000.
The dock repair project and erosion mitigation on Ediz Hook are both listed as costing $250,000 each in 2010, with $187,500 in grant funding for both projects.
Williams also proposed that the City Council further prioritize the long list of projects in the plan so that it is more clear what projects will be cut when the city has less revenue.
“I’m responding to an annual outcry that I hear . . . that some things are staff driven rather than council, policy driven,” he said. “I’m trying to get everyone on the same page.”
Already added to the plan this year is a list of recommendations from the American Institute of Architects.
Those projects are creating information centers at downtown intersections, additional direction signs, an entryway monument at First and Front streets near Golf Course Road and a downtown parking study.
A seven-member team of planners and architects with the AIA visited Port Angeles from March 16-18 on a grant the city had been awarded from the organization.
That team was in town to assess the vitality of the city’s downtown and corridor along First and Front streets and the planning for the city’s future.
Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
