PORT ANGELES — Throughout the next two weeks, traffic will slow down for intermittent, single-lane closures of two-lane westbound Front Street while an old sewage pump station is demolished at what’s become known as “suicide corner.”
The accident-prone curve just east of Marine Drive is bordered by a guardrail that protects the 49-year-old facility.
Both the guard rail and structure have been battered multiple times by errant drivers as they’ve rounded the bend, including twice this year, Combined Sewer Overflow project manager Jeff Bender said Friday.
“I’ve heard it called suicide corner,” Bender said.
“This won’t leave it any safer.
“You’ll still end up with people not being responsible when they’re driving.”
The traffic slowdowns will be imposed by TEK Construction of Bellingham.
Workers will demolish the pump station, which was replaced by a new $15.4 million, 3,200-square-foot facility on the south side of First Street.
Traffic disruptions also will be caused by paving work on Front Street adjacent to the new facility and in an alleyway and parking lot at Storm King CrossFit.
Construction of the new facility makes up the second and final phase ofthe city’s $47 million effort to staunch combined rainwater-sewage overflow that the old pump station has been unable to handle.
The result has been millions of gallons of effluent spewing annually into Port Angeles Harbor, the consequence of which was the city’s agreed order with the state Department of Ecology and the largest public works project in the city’s history.
Bender said Friday the start-time for demolition depends on permit approvals for waste hauling and removal but that Lakeside Industries should start paving Monday.
An excavator will be used to tear down the pump station.
Anything above grade will be hauled away, while materials from grade level to 3 feet below grade will be crushed into the pit of the pump station and filled in with sand and concrete.
It will be landscaped and a portion will remain asphalted.
The new pump station, online since Aug. 8, can pump 28 million gallons a day to the city’s water treatment plant compared to the 8 million gallons pushed by its predecessor.
The entire CSO project, including a 5-million-gallon storage tank and outfall the city bought from Rayonier Inc., can process a daily maximum flow of 50 million gallons without it fouling 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.
