PORT ANGELES — The Port Angeles Boat Haven is getting gussied up with $2.1 million in improvements beginning as early as May.
Bids for a $1.52 million fuel dock, a newly resurfaced east parking lot and a new marina tenant restroom building with shower stalls were approved last week by port commissioners.
“It was almost kind of a coincidence that a number of these projects happened around the Boat Haven at the same time,” port Director of Engineering Chris Hartman said Thursday.
“It was not our intention to just go out and invest specifically in the Boat Haven.”
Port Angeles Yacht Club Commodore Erika Hansen-Dahlin stands on the Port Angeles Boat Haven fuel dock, a feature destined to be replaced as part of $2.1 million in improvements approved by the Port of Port Angeles. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
It’s about time, as far as Port Angeles Yacht Club Commodore Erika Hansen-Dahlin and the group’s members are concerned. Their clubhouse is at the marina.
“These are huge,” said Hansen-Dahlin, a senior information technology programmer, said of the improvements.
The marina, one of two public dockage facilities operated by the tax district, has monthly moorage for 410 pleasure and working craft, and offers guest moorage.
Hansen-Dahlin said the fuel dock, which allows for 20,000-gallon gasoline and diesel transfers, is difficult to access, the parking lot is covered with potholes and marked with faded striping, and the rest rooms, well, yacht club members stay away from rest rooms.
“The [boating] industry itself is starting to ramp up,” Hansen-Dahlin said.
“People are starting to be able to work remotely and discovering PA is the place to be.
“We’ve had a huge influx of people reaching out and asking for charters, sailboat lessons and memberships. Most every single one is new to the community.”
The marina is underutilized, she added.
“It’s time we invest in it,” Hansen-Dahlin said.
The new fuel dock will replace the existing 48-year-old facility that consists of a surplus military dock that had a fuel station added to it and is kept afloat by sump pumps.
Talk around the port is the dock cost $1.
“That’s what I’ve always been told,” Deputy Executive Director John Nutter said Friday.
“I don’t have the receipt to prove it.”
The dock itself — a big hollow box in which water sloshes around — may be closer to 70 or 80 years old, Nutter said.
Port Angeles Boat Haven, shown on Saturday, is scheduled for impovements by the Port of Port Angeles. (Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News)
And Hansen-Dahlin said it’s too low to step without difficulty from a boat to the dock, calling it a “rinky dink” structure.
The new fuel dock will be installed beginning in November and completed early next year.
“I think everybody will be happy to see a new fuel dock,” port commission President Steven Burke said Tuesday after he and Commissioners Connie Beauvais and Colleen McAleer approved the bid.
“It will be amazing if we actually get that in before the old one sinks.”
American Construction Co. Inc. of Tacoma submitted the lowest base bid of $1.35 million for construction. It will cost $1.52 million when sales tax and construction administration are included.
It was the lowest of six bids submitted from Port Gamble, Aberdeen, Seattle and Stayton companies, the highest being $1.6 million from Redside Construction LLC of Port Gamble.
The 2021 and 2022 port capital budgets have a combined $760,000 allocated toward the project,
It is funded by a $432,587 state Recreation and Conservation Office Boating Infrastructure Grant and a $242,738 Washington State Parks Clean Vessel Act Grant.
Work on $280,000 for resurfacing the east Boat Haven parking lot could begin as early as May, Hartman said.
The paving has been planned but other projects kept getting in the way, he said.
In his report to the commissioners, Hartman said the lot is riddled with cracks and spalling, or peeling caused by water corrupting the base.
The project was deferred from 2020 due to COVID-related impacts and the reallocation of staff resources needed to apply for a federal grant application, Hartman said in his report.
Issaquah-based Lakeside Industries, which has a Port Angeles office, submitted the low and accepted base bid of $243,887 — which was $3,106 less than Interwest Construction Inc. of Burlington — plus sales tax.
The total project cost of $280,000, which includes construction administration, represents a savings of $120,000 less than the $400,000 allocated in the budget, Hartman said.
“The cost savings on this project will help balance the projected cost overrun on the fuel float replacement project,” he said in his report.
That overrun will be $84,675 over the 2021 budgeted amount, according to Environmental Manager Jesse Waknitz’s report to the commissioners on the fuel dock.
Hansen-Dahlin is hoping that paving would be completed in time for the 45th annual Pacific NW Offshore International Yacht Race, being held this year June 10-13.
The race begins at the mouth of the Columbia River and usually ends up in Victoria Harbor. This year, due to COVID-19 Canadian border restrictions, the finish line is Port Angeles, with racers expected to show up June 11. The finish line is near the marina-entrance end of Port Angeles Harbor.
A 780-square-foot concrete bathroom building will replace the existing facility in the marina’s western parking lot in a $285,000 project beginning this summer or fall, Hartman said.
The structure, which will be used primarily by west Boat Haven tenants, is being purchased from the state Department of Enterprise Services for $208,000. Additional costs include demolition of the existing structure, building a pad site and replacing an oil tank.
Hansen-Dahlin recalled port Executive Director Karen Goschen being invited to a recent yacht club meeting and getting an earful about the restrooms.
“That was literally one of the hottest, most vocal topics,” Hansen-Dahlin recalled.
“Those bathrooms are just plain skanky. I won’t even let our junior sailors use them.”
The new facility will have separate his and hers rest rooms with multiple stalls and four separate single-entry unisex showers attached to the building that will include dressing areas.
“It’s a basic service,” Hansen-Dahlin said.
“We’re heading in the right direction.”
Hartman said the last large renovation project at the marina was in 13 years ago, in 2008, when the port spent $5.5 million replacing the east Boat Haven’s floats, piles and utilities.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 55650, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
