FORKS — One major arterial street in Forks will be revamped this year while repair work on another is stalled until funding can be found.
Mayor Bryon Monohon said Division Street will have sidewalks added from Maple Street to Spartan Avenue, and there will be resurfacing work to improve the street, but the Russell Road washout from a December storm won’t be repaired until money can be found to fix it.
“We have gotten a grant from the [Transportation Improvement Board] to do the work,” Monohon said of the Division Street project.
The $800,000 project will begin later in the year, but Monohon didn’t have an exact start date.
It is the same board that provided money for the Calawah Way and Bogachiel Way projects, which received similar treatments in the past two years.
The Division Street project should be much less cumbersome because it runs through a neighborhood with many more cross streets to provide more alternate routes, Monohon said.
Russell Road
Russell Road is an arterial street in southwest Forks, and a culvert washed out under the road. Mill Creek flows through the culvert and goes on to meet up with the Bogachiel River.
The stream is a salmon-bearing waterway, so the rules of replacing the culvert are much more stringent than merely repairing the road.
“I know we’re used to just going up there and getting it done, but there is a certain way it has to be done,” Monohon said.
“It is just how it goes with these streams.”
The culvert was already failing before the December storm hit, and money for the repairs was originally in the federal budget, but it did not pass, Monohon said.
“I was talking to state Emergency Management Department last week, and they said there are a lot of people drumming up and looking for money to fix things,” he said.
Monohon said the cost of repairing the culvert and street will likely run in the $500,000 range.
“The Northwest Salmon Coalition is out there and trying to do design schemes for what would work best in that area,” he said.
“But there are a lot of people with their fingers in the pie when it comes to a fish-bearing stream.”
He said the Salmon Coalition also would like to do some other work in the area, including a walking trail and small park — a separate project, but something they hope could be accomplished at the same time.
“Doing it right now would be cost prohibitive, but if we can combine the projects we might be able to get it done,” Monohon said.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
