PORT ANGELES — Daily traffic-snarling congestion on the busy west end of Front Street near Oak Street will end early next week, City Engineer Mike Puntenney said Wednesday.
Goodbye, single-lane closures and bumpy, gravelly road surfaces that have slowed drivers while workers build a pump station for the $15.2 million phase two installment of the city’s combined sewer overflow project.
Puntenney said that in the future, there may be brief periods of single-lane closures, though “not like what people are experiencing now.”
But beginning by about next Tuesday, he said, drivers can say hello to about three weeks of single-block, one- and two-lane closures east on Front to Lincoln Street — and about three more weeks of closures from Lincoln to Second Street.
For about three weeks, they will extend from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. four to five days a week Mondays through Thursdays or Fridays from Oak to Laurel streets and Laurel to Lincoln Street.
Puntenney said TEK Construction of Bellingham, the contractor for the sewer main project, can reduce traffic by one lane between 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. to accommodate ferry traffic and two lanes from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Intersecting cross streets — Oak and Laurel — will remain open for the duration.
And the streets will be fully open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
More traffic disruptions
After Front Street is finished, traffic disruptions will follow on Lincoln Street south to Second Street through July as underground sewer main installation continues its incremental advance.
The sewer line will be installed on the northern side of Front Street.
Work on Lincoln Street from Front to Second also will entail nighttime closures of single lanes and full blocks, with detours yet to be worked out, Puntenney said.
Sidewalks will remain open throughout the project, as will businesses.
Business owners had asked that the work be done at night, Puntenney said.
The two-lane closures were chosen to hasten completion.
“It provides the least inconvenience,” Puntenney said.
The downtown route of Port Angeles’ signature Fourth of July parade will not be interrupted, he added.
The new sewer main will connect with an outfall that now spills through an underwater culvert that is part of Peabody Creek off Lincoln.
Now, it flows from the culvert to the west side of City Pier into Port Angeles Harbor during overflows from the city’s sewers.
The new sewer main eventually will route that water to the pump station, where it will flow to the city’s wastewater treatment plant, rather than dumping it into the Peabody Creek culvert.
“It basically picks up anything that would have gone into the culvert,” Puntenney said.
The combined sewer overflow project is being built in response to a 2006 agreed order with the state Department of Ecology to reduce overflows from city sewers into Port Angeles Harbor.
“This is a huge infrastructure undertaking and very complex,” said Puntenney, a city employee for 11 years.
“There’s nothing like it in my time here.”
Seal coat will be applied to the entire street surface over the new sewer main. Asphalt will be applied to those portions where the main will be laid.
“There’s no new streetscaping,” Puntenney said.
“We don’t have that kind of money.
“All the new infrastructure is below ground.”
Once the new sewer line is installed, remaining construction will be confined to the pump station, where excavation should be completed by Friday, Project Manager Jeff Bender said Wednesday.
Construction should begin on the pump-station building by mid-July.
The concrete, brick-facade structure will be 21 feet, 4 inches above ground with a peaked roof.
It will replace the pump station on the north side of Marine Drive that will be razed, freeing up further access to Valley Creek Estuary Park.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
