PORT ANGELES — A joint-venture bidder from Gig Harbor has won a $25.6 million contract to build a military pier at Ediz Hook that will jut into Port Angeles Harbor, making submarine escort vessels visible from the city’s shoreline.
The bid was awarded less than a week after release of the final environmental assessment of the project, which found no significant impacts would result from the pier and its support facilities.
Watts-Orion Joint Venture of Gig Harbor will construct the pile-supported approach trestle and pier at U.S. Coast Guard Station/Sector Field Office Port Angeles, according to the bid award issued Tuesday by Naval Facilities Engineering Command of Silverdale.
Construction will begin by the end of October, a company representative said Wednesday.
The pier, with six moorage berths for ballistic-submarine security-escort vessels 33 to 250 feet long, will be built by February 2018 and will include support facilities including sleeping quarters and an armory, the Navy said.
The project will generate 267 construction jobs and $1.7 million in state and local taxes, according to the final environmental assessment of the project, dated Aug. 24.
Icicle Seafoods, which has 20 individual Atlantic-salmon pens nearby, according to the assessment, will lose revenue from a shortened fish crop season and a delay to the next rearing cycle, the assessment said.
The company had planned to move the pens away from the area.
The pier will extend 40 feet into an area used by Icicle Seafoods for their pens, according to the assessment.
Innes Weir, general manager of Cooke Aquaculture Pacific LLC, in Seattle, which owns Icicle Seafoods, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
The pier will be located a half-mile east of the Coast Guard station’s entrance gate, according to the environmental impact statement, which determined the project would not have a significant impact.
Jeff Robison, general manager of Watts Constructors of Gig Harbor, said the company is the managing partner for the project with Orion Marine Group of Tacoma.
“We likely to start mobilizing in six to eight weeks,” he said Wednesday.
“We’re jazzed.”
The contract duration is 18 months, according to Brenda Abel-Kiser, chief estimator for Napa, Calif.-based Nova Group, a bidder on the project.
According to that timeline, construction on the 22,303-square-foot trestle and pier could begin in a matter of weeks.
Once it is completed, the Navy could stop leasing dock space from the Port of Port Angeles for three 64-foot support vessels at the port’s Boat Haven in Port Angeles Harbor, finance director John Nutter said Wednesday.
Under the terms of a recently approved contract, the Navy moorings could generate $19,200 annually to the port.
“If they are not there, we’d likely be able to rent that dock space out to someone else,” Nutter said, adding the space is often empty during the summer.
The impact of the Navy no longer renting the space “would probably be minimal to the port,” he added.
The security-escort vessels will accompany submarines to and from the dive-surface points in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Naval Base Kitsap Bangor.
The dock will help the Navy fulfill requirements for crew rest periods during escort missions, the Navy said in a news release.
The vessels are part of the Navy’s Transportation Protection System.
Duty-hour limits during transits vary by boat size and are shorter during high seas and foul weather conditions, according to an April 16 Navy presentation to the Clallam County commissioners.
The pier will include floating docks and temporary living accommodations for 20-30 crew members.
A diesel fuel storage and distribution system also will be built.
The Navy has worked with the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe on beach restoration and with the state Department of Natural Resources to mitigate aquatic habitat loss.
Mike McHenry, Lower Elwha habitat biologist, did not return a call for comment Wednesday afternoon.
Tribe-related treaty mitigation could include removing rock armoring, fill, debris, concrete-asphalt pad and storage structures, according to the Navy’s presentation to the commissioners.
Beach restoration would extend west to an area that has already been restored, according to the presentation.
A 16,900-square-foot rock jetty also could be removed that extends 215 feet south into the harbor.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
