PORT TOWNSEND — Bond financing for a $5 million Port of Port Townsend project to build and replace new A/B docks for about 100 boats in Boat Haven marina is expected to be secured in April.
Port Executive Director Larry Crockett said that would allow the port commissioners to advertise a call for bids on April 21, a date also timed with design review and finalizing city building permits.
The project also would include the relocation and reconstruction of a 70-ton haul-out dock next to the existing 300-ton haul-out.
“We can’t award a contract until we have the money, so we’ve got to time everything,” Crockett said, displaying the port’s schedule of events.
A contractor is expected to be selected by the end of May, with dry-land construction of dock components set for the last half of July.
The A/B docks were originally built in 1967. Given an expected lifespan of 25 years, they should have been replaced in the early 1990s, Crockett said.
With little demand from marina tenants to replace them, it never happened.
Slowly decaying
But the docks are slowly decaying, Crockett said.
In places, they are made of materials that are not environmentally sound, such as Styrofoam, he added.
Crockett said the project might attract a large contractor because work is scarce in harsh economic times.
“I think this isn’t a real big project in the context of the universe, but we might get a bigger company,” he said, adding the port will be looking for an experienced operation.
“The bond rates are cheap now, and contractors are really looking for work,” Crockett said, citing port advantages and saying that contractors are bidding up to 20 percent less on projects in the existing economy.
“Plus it’s as good a bond market as it ever would be,” he added.
While it has been figured that the port’s bond debt would come to about $400,000 a month, port officials said it is possible that payments could be lowered initially to $250,000 for two years.
Move boats
During construction, the port would remove some 100 boats, with the larger vessels possibly being moved to Point Hudson Marina, which was renovated in a similar project in 2006-2007.
Most smaller boats would be moved to moorage in corners of other parts of the marina or pulled out of the water on trailers, Crockett said.
The AB Docks project would, like Point Hudson Marina, be upgraded to American with Disabilities Act specifications and city building codes.
Space for about 13 boats would be lost.
While the first phase of the project — the dock components — would be built on land, the second phase would be in-water work.
That would be scheduled to be during a time allowed by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife when young salmon are not migrating. It also would be after the Wooden Boat Festival’s use of Point Hudson Marina in October.
Demolition in September
Demolition of the existing AB Docks would begin Sept. 15, as the port plans, when the fish migration window allows.
In-water work would end Feb. 15, 2011, closing the opportunity to work, with the state restriction running to July 15.
Electrical work and installation of gangways could still be done when the fish window closes to in-water work because it is above water and does not disturb the salmon migration.
Boats would be allowed to return to the new marina after project completion in April 2011, Crockett said.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
