Crews yet to fix crack in garage wall
PORT ANGELES — Most of the parking at The Gateway transit center will be opened for use before next Friday.
Clallam Transit General Manager Terry Weed said that was the agreement reached between the transit agency and the city of Port Angeles last Friday.
“Whether that’s on a temporary basis or not, we’re not 100 percent sure at this point,” he said.
City Manager Kent Myers, city Public Works and Utilities Director Glenn Cutler and city Economic and Community Development Nathan West couldn’t be reached for comment on Friday.
The 169 parking spaces at The Gateway include free three-hour spaces, parking spaces that cost $11 a day, and permitted spaces for $15 a month.
The $14.7 million downtown project, located on Lincoln and Front streets and Railroad Avenue, is a joint project between the two public entities.
The parking area beneath the pavilion will remain off limits until a structural repair to the building’s east foundation wall is completed.
Wall repair
A repair to the wall, which Cutler has said essentially involves adding additional concrete to the wall for support, was approved by the city on April 24.
The repair will take between seven and 10 working days to complete, but contractor Primo Construction hasn’t been given the go-ahead to begin the work because the city is awaiting additional information from project designer Krei Architecture.
For the parking to be opened, Weed said some “minor items” need to be added.
They include placing a hanging barrier on the lower deck of the west parking garage so that vehicles that exceed the height limit don’t hit the ceiling and wheel stops.
Clallam Transit has been waiting to open the parking area because of questions about its interlocal agreement with the city for the project.
Questions deal with the division of costs between the two public entities, such as who will be responsible for overseeing the management of the parking, which will be done by Heckman Motors.
“Because there are three entities involved here,” including Heckman Motors, “it has not been exactly determined who is going to be managing what in what fashion,” Weed said.
“We can’t establish who will be insuring what until we have those questions answered.”
Weed said resolving these issues have been on the back burner until recently because of the pavilion’s structural problem.
Heckman Motors has had a parking agreement with Clallam Transit for The Gateway since 2006.
Clallam Trasnit wants to renegotiate that agreement to incorporate any changes that will occur to its interlocal agreement with the city, Weed said.
The Gateway also includes a bus lane, which was opened on April 13, public restrooms, which remain closed because they are accessed through the pavilion, an office for the downtown police officer, and clock tower.
It is funded with $8.1 million in state and federal grants, $6.1 million in city funds and $500,000 from Clallam Transit.
It was scheduled to be completed in November, but that has been on hold while cracks that radiated from underneath a horizontal support beam in the pavilion was analyzed, and a repair was approved.
The repair is expected to cost between $15,000 and $20,000.
As of April 30, there was $84,665 left in the budget for the project. That figure includes the contingency fund.
________
Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
