PORT ANGELES — Clallam County has obligated federal construction funds to expedite the replacement of the Old Olympic Highway bridge over McDonald Creek.
Commissioners voted Tuesday to approve a supplemental local agency agreement with the state Department of Transportation obligating $807,800 in federal funds to the 2017 county road project.
Old Olympic Highway will be closed at the bridge east of Agnew during an eight-month construction period that will likely begin in early July, Assistant County Engineer Joe Donisi said Tuesday.
Drivers will be detoured from Old Olympic Highway to U.S. Highway 101 during construction.
Paperwork process
The supplemental agreement will allow the state to begin a two-month paperwork process while the county prepares to go to bid, Donisi said. The state manages federal funds earmarked for the county project.
Clallam County will complete the plans and specifications and work with property owners who will be most affected by the bridge closure before going to bid in early May, Donisi said.
“We have an in-water work window that pretty much drives the entire project,” Donisi told commissioners in a Jan. 17 work session.
“So we want to go to bid and be ready to award the contract and get in there and do the in-water work during that window.”
The in-water work window for the installation of riprap begins in July.
“It’s one of these situations: If we miss it by a month, we miss it by a year,” Donisi said.
The contractor will remove the narrow 60-year-old bridge and replace it with a modern span.
The new bridge will be several feet higher than the existing bridge to match the grade of the county road leading up to it, Donisi has said.
Clallam County will use real estate excise tax revenue to cover its $4.4 million share of the estimated $5.5 million construction cost, according to a table in the local agency agreement.
County officials have determined that installing a temporary bridge would be cost-prohibitive, Donisi said.
In other board action from Tuesday’s meeting, Commissioners Mark Ozias and Bill Peach voted — with Commissioner Randy Johnson excused — to certify the 2017 road levy and estimated revenue produced as required by state law.
“This is just an annual thing that we have to do in order to maintain our status with the county Road Administration Board,” County Engineer Ross Tyler said.
“It certifies that we are transferring $500,000 to the sheriffs department for specifically traffic policing.”
The action also certifies that there is no levy shift or diverted road levy, which is “critical to applying for money” from the County Road Administration Board (CRAB), County Administrator Jim Jones said.
“A number of counties do those shifts,” Jones said.
“We have managed to stay away from doing that over the years. Nothing wrong with it. It’s just you can’t apply for CRAB funding if you do it.”
Peach thanked Tyler for maintaining the CRAB funding stream, which is gas tax revenue passed down from the federal government.
Streamkeepers pact
Commissioners also approved a five-year, not-to-exceed-$16,000-per-year interlocal agreement with the city of Port Angeles for Streamkeepers to perform water quality monitoring on behalf of the city.
Streamkeepers is the county’s volunteer-based water quality monitoring program.
“Streamkeepers has demonstrated the capacity to fulfill the agreement, which helps the city maintain compliance with its Phase 2 permit under the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System, clean up polluted watersheds and Port Angles Harbor, and add to the data in the Clallam County Water Resources database,” Tyler said in an executive summary to the agreement.
The Port Angeles City Council unanimously approved the agreement Jan. 17.
The city has contracted with Streamkeepers to monitor water quality in its five streams and harbor since 1999, city Public Works and Utilities Director Craig Fulton said in a memo to the council.
Fecal coliform found
In 2013, high concentrations of fecal coliform bacteria led to a city investigation that discovered a restroom at the county courthouse was plumbed to the stormwater system and Peabody Creek, Fulton said.
High concentrations of fecal coliform led to the recent discovery of a side sewer that was leaking into a storm line discharging into Peabody Creek near Lauridsen Boulevard, Fulton said.
“These efforts to trace and eliminate sources of water pollution provide significant environmental benefit,” Fulton wrote.
“The Streamkeepers program is an exemplary water quality volunteer program. Not only does Streamkeepers deliver high-quality data and observations, it involves citizens in the health of our stream systems in a very tangible way.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsula dailynews.com.
