PORT ANGELES — The Port of Port Angeles will delay the $1 million startup of a multiyear $3 million Terminal 1 pile-replacement project until 2015.
The project delay is among several 2014 capital-project delays and deferrals, port commissioners learned Tuesday.
In all, $1.4 million of the port’s $2.7 million 2014 capital budget has been deferred or delayed, Chris Hartman, port director of engineering, told commissioners as part of his second-quarter 2014 report, which covers January through June.
Schedule delays for the Terminal 1 and marine trades area cleanup off Marine Drive were based on permitting or coordination issues, Hartman said in a later email.
Deferred projects are being rescheduled to future years for such reasons as permitting agency staff turnover, complicated permitting requirements or other reasons, he said.
The $1 million in construction on Terminal 1 — where toxic, creosote-covered timber pilings will be replaced with stronger, environmentally safer steel piles — was slated to begin in October.
Now, it will begin in July 2015, Hartman said.
Construction must be completed by 2017, he said.
‘Still on track’
“We’re still on track there,” he told the commissioners.
The port already has spent $73,826 of $180,000 for redevelopment-permit costs and project design, Hartman said.
He said the Terminal 1 project holdup was due to permitting delays and, in part, turnover at the Army Corps of Engineers.
The permit also was a more comprehensive “full harbor programmatic permit” that outlined 10 years of anticipated improvements to other port’s piers rather than solely Terminal 1 improvements, he said.
“It looks at all our facilities and says, ‘In the next 10 years, we anticipate needing to do this many pile replacements at each of our facilities,’” Hartman said in an interview after Tuesday’s meeting.
Patricia Graesser, spokeswoman for the Corps of Engineers’ Seattle district, said Tuesday in an email that the permit covers maintenance activities at five terminals, including Terminal 1, and at log rafting areas and the Boat Haven marina.
The public comment period on the permit ended April 17.
“We are currently reviewing the project for compliance with the Endangered Species Act, tribal coordination and the National Historic Preservation Act,” she said.
The transit shed at Terminal 1, built in 1926 as the port’s first development, is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places and would be demolished, according to the public notice asking for comment on the project issued jointly by the Corps and the state Department of Ecology.
“It is not possible to predict a specific date for completion of the review and coordination process, as it involves entities outside the Army Corps of Engineers.
The improvements to Terminal 1, where 900-foot vessels dock for repairs and maintenance, will be funded in part with a $1.5 million U.S. Economic Development Agency grant that will not be endangered by the construction delay, Hartman said.
Terminal 1 was among two delayed and four deferred projects cited by Hartman in his presentation to the commissioners.
Marine trades area
A $250,000 cleanup project also will be delayed for the port’s marine trades area on Marine Drive near the site of the former Peninsula Plywood mill.
Funding was deferred for replacement of a security truck to allow for purchase of a more fuel-efficient vehicle in 2015.
Also deferred was an upgrade to the port’s virtual server, a fire-suppression upgrade for the port’s information technology room and acquisition of a gangway transition tower that would help cruise ship passengers disembark.
Port officials have borrowed a gangway system for this year’s cruises.
Projects completed include purchase of a $199,456 log loader.
The 23 projects still scheduled for 2014 include $160,000 in vehicle access improvements to William R. Fairchild International Airport, which is 75 percent complete and will be finished by mid-September, Hartman said.
They also include construction of a $100,000 stormwater treatment facility, which is 48 percent complete, he said.
“A number of projects are in planning stages or are moving toward construction now,” he said.
For eight of the projects still on schedule for 2014, nothing has been spent year-to-date, Hartman said.
Port security
In other action, port commissioners heard a report on a $701,063 federal grant to upgrade port security that was $67,336, or 9 percent, less than the $768,399 requested by the port for ID security, cybersecurity, camera and lighting improvements.
The port had applied for funding for 75 percent of the project cost of $1.02 million, with the port covering the remaining 25 percent, or $256,133.
The new project cost is $934,751.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will decide by September “which parts [of the project] weren’t allowed,” Hartman said.
The port spent $10,000 in consultant services on submitting the application, Hartman told the commissioners.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
