PORT ANGELES — The National Park Service has reduced the cost estimate for the mammoth Elwha River Restoration Project, which includes the removal of the streams’ two dams.
The project is estimated to cost $324.7 million, said Dave Reynolds, Olympic National Park spokesman.
That’s down from the previous estimate of $351 million.
Reynolds attributed the decrease to the dam removal contract coming in lower than anticipated.
The project was first tagged with a $119 million cost estimate in 1999.
The park service awarded a $26.9 million contract to Barnard Construction Co. of Bozeman, Mont., last August to remove the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams.
The removal of the 108-foot Elwha Dam and 210-foot Glines Canyon Dam is to begin in September and be finished by September 2014.
The goal of the project, the largest of its kind in the nation, is to restore salmon habitat.
The two dams were built without fish ladders.
The federal agency, which is heading the project, estimated that the contract to tear the dams down could have cost between $20 million and $40 million.
Dam removal, authorized by Congress in 1992, will begin in September and be complete by September 2014.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
