PORT ANGELES — The city of Port Angeles has been granted about $3.7 million in federal funds to replace the Lauridsen Boulevard bridge, a project that takes it one step closer to rerouting truck traffic out of downtown.
Glenn Cutler, city public works and utilities director, said his staff members are “very ecstatic.”
He hopes to have the bridge replaced in the next three years.
The bridge, which crosses Peabody Creek, is one of three in Clallam County and 47 in the state receiving funding from the federal Highway Bridge Program to be retrofitted or replaced, the state Department of Transportation announced Thursday.
Clallam County is receiving $807,800 to retrofit the McDonald Creek bridge on Old Olympic Highway to increase its odds of surviving an earthquake and $873,800 to stop scouring underneath the Ward Bridge, which crosses the Dungeness River on Woodcock Road.
‘Cross-town route’
The city wants to use Lauridsen Boulevard as part of a “cross-town route” for truck traffic in order to reduce the number of large vehicles travelling downtown streets.
That goal has been inhibited partly by the 42-year-old bridge, which is too narrow for large trucks to make the turn to or from Race Street.
City Manager Kent Myers called the grant timely, particularly since the city is taking a hard look, through its Waterfront and Transportation Improvement Plan, at how to make downtown more friendly for pedestrians.
“This will set us on course to create the truck route within the next five years,” he said. “It will be a major improvement to transportation.”
The route would direct truck traffic along Race Street, Lauridsen Boulevard, U.S. Highway 101 and the Tumwater Truck Route.
Other modifications
But a new, wider bridge won’t solve the truck traffic problem by itself, Cutler said.
The intersection of the Tumwater Truck Route and Highway 101 must be improved to allow eastbound trucks to turn left onto the highway, he said, and the intersection of Lincoln Street and Lauridsen Boulevard also will have to be retrofitted to make it easier for westbound trucks to turn left.
Last year, the city was denied a stimulus grant to pay for those projects, as well as other road improvements, including replacing the bridge.
Cutler said the city will continue to pursue grants for the other two projects, together estimated to cost $7.5 million.
County bridges
Ross Tyler, county engineer, said the two county bridge projects could take two or three years to complete.
The approximately 40- to 50-year-old McDonald Creek bridge, he said, was not built to withstand earthquakes.
“If that 6.8 Nisqually earthquake [in 2001] had been right in our neighborhood, it might have gone down,” Ross said.
To prevent that from happening, he said, the bridge’s columns will likely be reinforced with Kevlar, and an elastic pad may be placed under the bridge deck to reduce friction during a seismic event.
The problem with the Ward Bridge, Ross said, is that the river removes sand and gravel from underneath its columns during peak flow periods.
He attributed that to a design flaw when the columns were constructed sometime in the 1940s.
“The foundation wasn’t deep enough to begin with,” Ross said.
The concrete foundation may be expanded to solve the problem, he said. Rip rap also may be used.
The problem is always temporary, Ross said, since any gaps under the foundation are filled in as sand and gravel settles.
But he said his staff watch the bridge carefully whenever the river is “under high-flow conditions.”
Public works staff members with the city and county said the federal funding — totaling nearly $5.4 million for both entities and anticipated to cover 80 percent of the costs — allows them to complete projects too expensive to handle alone.
“Essentially, we are pulling our hair out trying to figure out both of these problems,” Tyler said.
“This is a major help to us.”
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
