PORT ANGELES — Demolition is expected to begin by December at the site of the shuttered Peninsula Plywood plant on Marine Drive just west of central downtown, Port of Port Angeles Executive Director Jeff Robb said Thursday.
The project is expected to cost $1.4 million to $1.9 million, he said.
The port requested bids on the demolition contract earlier this month.
Qualified contractors, and subcontractors who perform hazardous-material abatement work, must attend one of two mandatory pre-bid meetings Aug. 9 and 14, with sealed bids scheduled to be opened Sept. 5, according to the port’s legal notice for the project.
The buildings have asbestos in the steam piping, Robb said.
Demolition will begin within about 30 days from the bid award and take up to six months to complete, Robb said.
Robb said the hardest part of the process will happen after demolition is complete.
That’s when testing and removal of hazardous soil under the buildings must be done.
Removal of ground pollution is “a project in itself,” he said.
“Our goal is to remove the building, expose the underlying ground, then proceed forward with a full environmental assessment, then mitigate whatever issues are underlying,” Robb said.
“With the building removed, we can get to the surface and go after that by removing soils,” he said.
“If everything goes well, we should be in a mitigation state in 2014, and some development may occur on the site in 2014.”
Peninsula Plywood opened in 1941, was an ITT Rayonier affiliate for 18 years from 1971 to 1989 and was sold to an Alaska-based corporation and renamed Kply in 1989, according to an 18-page 2001 history of the company published by the Plywood Pioneers Association.
Kply shut down the mill in 2007. It reopened in March 2010 as Peninsula Plywood, then closed in December owing the port, city of Port Angeles and state Department of Labor and Industries $2.4 million.
The plant’s equipment was auctioned off in June.
The port has said it wants the site occupied by a marine trades-related business.
A lease for 7.7 acres held by PenPly co-investor Grant Munro, owner of Munro LLC, for log storage expires in March.
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
