PORT ANGELES — Pile-driving began this week on Ediz Hook and will continue for up to two months as in-water construction began anew Monday on a 425-foot submarine escort vessel pier in Port Angeles Harbor.
In-water work restarted Monday along the Coast Guard Air Station/Sector Field Office Port Angeles’ protected shoreline that faces the city after a five-month hiatus that began Feb. 15 to protect salmon species, Jake Chappelle, a Naval Base Kitsap spokesman, said Monday.
“The final 53 permanent piles will be driven by Labor Day,” Chappelle said in an email.
But the project completion date for the $26.5 million pier and other Navy Transportation Protection System facilities has been moved from February 2018 to probably July 2018, Naval Base Kitsap spokeswoman Silvia Klatman said.
“Negotiations continue with the construction contractor with expected agreement for pier completion in July 2018 rather than February 2018,” Klatman said last week in an email.
Chappelle said an Army Corps of Engineers delay in issuing a permit for the in-water work held up completion of the pier until July 2018.
Pile-driving will occur up to four hours a day, according to the Navy’s August 2016 environmental assessment.
Noise-generating activities will occur from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and be exempt from state and city noise regulations.
Piles were driven for the dock from Feb. 3 until Feb. 15, when the fish window closed to protect migrating salmon, until Monday, when it opened.
Klatman said that in the past five months, construction has proceeded on construction of the transportation system’s Alert Forces Facility.
The 8,200-square-foot building will house 56 submarine escort personnel and include sleeping and living quarters for up to 30 of the personnel.
“In addition, eelgrass harvesting in the planned in-water construction area has been completed in accordance with comprehensive agreements with regulatory agencies and the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, with the purpose of salvaging eelgrass for transplantation,” Klatman said in the email.
The facility also will include a 10,000-gallon fuel storage tank 300 feet east of the Alert Forces Facility and a gated 200-square-foot small-arms and munition armory.
The 13,000-pound driver being used for the project pushes out 170 tons of drive force at up to 1,650 vibrations per minute.
“People may hear something in the distance, but it’s not going to be something big and disruptive,” on-site Navy Engineering Technician Rich Hickey told the Peninsula Daily News in February.
The pier will contain six moorage berths for ballistic-submarine security-escort vessels 33 to 250 feet long.
The project will generate 267 construction jobs and $1.7 million in state and local taxes, according to the final August 2016 environmental assessment of the project.
Cooke Aquaculture also is going through permitting to replace its Atlantic salmon farming operation from near the Navy pier area to 3.8 miles east of Ediz Hook and 1.5 miles offshore in a $9 million project.
A hearing before the Clallam County hearing examiner on Cooke’s shoreline substantial permit for 14 net pens, each 126 feet in diameter and 45 feet deep, is Sept. 7.
It would encompass 9.7 acres of water surface area.
An aquatic lease also would be required from the state Department of Natural Resources.
Permits also will be required from the Corps of Engineers and state departments of Ecology and Wildlife.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
