PORT ANGELES — The First Street stormwater project may be slowed by a forecast of inclement weather, but the project remains on track to finish by the end of the month, a city engineer said.
Civil engineer Jim Mahlum said the contractor, Road Construction Northwest Inc., doesn’t plan to pave this week as initially scheduled because of a forecast of cold, wet weather during the evenings.
To lessen the impact on businesses, the city agreed to allow paving only during the evening and twilight hours.
Mahlum said weather has to be dry and no colder than 45 degrees for paving to occur.
The forecast calls for rain and temperatures in the low 40s at night through Saturday.
In the meantime, RCNI is installing new concrete crosswalks that will be stamped with a brick pattern.
But moisture also may be a problem for the concrete, Mahlum acknowledged.
He said he couldn’t estimate how long the weather may impact both the paving and crosswalk installation, but Mahlum added that the contractor still appears on target to finish by May 24.
“If we had perfect days, they would be ahead of schedule,” he said.
RCNI has until the end of June to finish the work.
The project started in late February.
It involved installing a new stormwater pipe between Valley and Laurel streets, which has been completed; paving both lanes of the road; adding bike lanes; and replacing crosswalks.
Valley-Cherry streets
A new crosswalk is being added between Valley and Cherry streets.
The city has budgeted $225,000 for the work, but the city expects the project to cost $2.25 million.
The National Park Service is picking up the rest of the bill because the project is part of its Elwha River restoration effort.
The First Street project is intended to remove enough stormwater from the city’s sewer system to offset the contribution of sewage from the Lower Elwha Klallam reservation.
The tribe will be connected to the city’s sewers because it’s expected that its septic tanks will become unusable as the groundwater level rises when the two Elwha River dams are removed.
That work was supposed to begin in March but has been delayed by up to 60 days. The delay is caused by the permitting process taking longer than expected, the Park Service has said.
The Park Service agreed to fund a stormwater disconnect project to offset the impact the additional wastewater would have on the city’s sewage overflow problem.
The sewer system is scheduled to be built summer 2012.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
