PORT ANGELES — Clearing Lincoln Park of trees that restrict flights to and from William R. Fairchild International Airport are part of a 26-page work plan laid out by the Port of Port Angeles on Monday.
The work plan, shown to port commissioners during their Monday meeting, includes all of the major projects for the port as well as some maintenance projects.
Among the plans for the year are redeveloping Lincoln Park after trees are removed from the airport’s landing path, the beginning of construction on new industrial buildings for aircraft composites manufacturing and design work for redevelopment of the MV Coho ferry terminal.
“I think that all of the staff deserve credit for this [plan],” said Executive Director Jeff Robb.
“We have accomplished a lot of work.
“When we entered the year last year, we had a $300,000 budget deficit, and we came out at the end of the year with an excess of about $800,000 — that is a more than $1 million swing.”
Some of the project highlights for the coming year are:
• Lincoln Park Master Plan and development.
The Lincoln Park Master Plan will include a revamping of the park after tall Douglas firs are removed to keep William R. Fairchild International Airport’s runway in compliance with Federal Aviation Administration rules and to ensure that trees don’t grow into the landing path in the future.
The port’s portion of the plan will be an estimated $22,000, with the FAA providing $440,000.
Although the master plan is not yet developed, the port and city — Lincoln is a city park — expect to add trees that don’t grow as tall as well as other elements.
• Angeles Composites Technologies Inc. campus.
The port as landlord is developing a campus next to the airport of up to five new 25,000-square-foot buildings to add to two already rented by Angeles.
One of those buildings is expected to be finished by the end of the year to accommodate the company’s expansion plans.
The port anticipates a cost of $8.5 million over five or more years to finish all of the buildings.
• International ferry terminal.
The port will renovate the facilities leased by Black Ball Ferry Line, which operates the year-round vehicle and passenger ferry service between Victoria and Port Angeles.
The 30-year-old dock has been on the planned work schedule for several years.
This year, $20,000 is budgeted for engineering and possibly an additional $300,000 for other work.
The project is estimated to eventually cost $5 million for the port’s share of the improvements.
Black Ball, which operates the MV Coho, also will make some improvements, but the company’s costs are not estimated in the work plan.
• Enhancement of Terminal 3.
The budget includes $400,000 in 2011 for the design and engineering for expanding the Terminal 3 pier to accommodate more than one oil tanker.
The eventual cost of the project is projected at $3.9 million.
• Construction of the Tumwater Creek bridge.
The project is budgeted for $450,000 for a short bridge to cross Tumwater Creek on the port’s waterfront property just west of the Westport Shipyard plant.
The project was originally scheduled for 2010, but was delayed when the port was applying to house facilities for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The needs of NOAA would have been different than other tenants, so the project was delayed until NOAA made a decision — which it did by moving to Oregon rather than Port Angeles.
The new bridge will carry fully loaded log trucks, loaded log stackers and top pick container handling equipment.
Construction is expected to begin in July and be finished by September.
Computer upgrades
The port also reserved $18,000 to upgrade outdated computer hardware.
The old computers will not be sold off as surplus, but will be taken to the airport where an Emergency Operations Center will be created over time.
The center would allow the port to operate if a catastrophic event damaged the port office building in downtown Port Angeles.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
