PORT TOWNSEND — Although construction of new taxiways and hangar sites at Jefferson County International Airport is delayed until spring, infrastructure preparation work is expected to occur by year’s end, a Port of Port Townsend official said Thursday.
“I question whether we are going to be building a taxiway and hangars until next year,” Port Deputy Director Jim Pivarnik told Port commissioners on Wednesday.
However, Pivarnik said he spoke to U.S. Corps of Engineers officials Thursday who assured him permits will be arranged by the end of September.
Three weeks ago, the corps determined that the project would be “touching a wetland at the airport,” said Pivarnik.
Specifically, a drainage ditch running north and south under the center of the airport’s tarmac was determined to be a “jurisdictional wetlands.”
In the past, the Port had been allowed to fill in 1.3 acres to pave the runway.
Pivarnik said that Port staff did not realize the fill had taken place in 1997, when the corps turned up permit documentation revealing that action.
