PORT TOWNSEND — The City of Port Townsend is moving into the design phase for its portion of a much larger trail design project, ultimately aimed at constructing a trail leading from Bainbridge Island to La Push.
The design is to be funded by a $16.13 million Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant, which was awarded to the city of Port Angeles.
The grant request specifies designing 34 connections for more than 100 miles of gaps in the Sound to Olympic Trail (STO) and the Olympic Discovery Trail (ODT).
The Port Townsend City Council authorized City Manager John Mauro to enter into an agreement with state Department of Transportation (WSDOT) as an intermediary.
“Because the contract had already been formalized and had become ready for the signature, I signed it within 30 seconds of the council decision,” Mauro said.
“It started with that. We didn’t want to mess around. The other jurisdictions right now are bringing it to their governing bodies for authorization to sign. I expect that to be going on for the next month or so.”
The city of Port Townsend has the opportunity to play a role in four different stretches of trail, three as a supporting agency and one as a lead.
Port Townsend will take the lead on a trail connecting between the Larry Scott trailhead and Fort Worden. Steve King, the city’s public works director, said their portion of the design grant should be about $250,000.
“Hopefully within the next two to three years we’ll have a good idea where the trail goes, and we can start applying for funds to build the trail,” King said. “I think what we’re finding out is that every organization has variable schedules and so there’s flexibility in when we can do this work. I would like to see us start this work next year.”
Mauro said the grant funds must be obligated by 2027 and spent by 2032.
Jefferson County will act as the lead agency on a section of trail planned to be designed between Eaglemount Road and Anderson Lake Road. That section will be a part of the main ODT.
The city will play a supporting role on that stretch as it is likely to be implemented to run alongside the Olympic Discovery Pipeline, an important main waterline for the area.
King said the pipeline brings water in from the Quilcene River area up to Port Townsend, about 30 miles of pipe.
Part of the trail also will run through land owned by the city.
“Between Anderson Lake Road and Eaglemount Road, we want the trail and the pipeline to be in the same location, which allows us to use the trail to double as a maintenance access road,” King said. “It’s not very often the case that we need to drive down the trail to service the pipes. If we can serve both purposes, I think the public gets double the value.”
The Port of Port Townsend will lead the process on two additional trail designs connecting with the Larry Scott trailhead. One will lead from the trailhead to the Haines Place Park and Ride and the other will lead to the ferry terminal.
The four trail sections are a part of a much broader project connecting from Bainbridge to La Push, or from Puget Sound to the Pacific (PS2P).
Jeff Bohman, president of the board of Peninsula Trails Coalition, said funding for area trails opened up to broader visibility and more funding opportunities after the Peninsula gained inclusion in 2018 into the Great American Rail Trail, a country-spanning, east-to-west trail. The inclusion took place after the organization petitioned for inclusion with the Rails to Trails Conservancy.
“We urged them to take the turn of showing the trail as extending all the way out to the ocean, using the Olympic Discovery Trail as the westernmost part of that,” Bohman said. “We were successful in that regard, and as a result, for the last five years or so, the Olympic Discovery Trail has officially been the western end of the Great American Rail Trail.”
Officials at the city are eager to move forward in conjunction with surrounding jurisdictions, Mauro said.
“In a way, this is a great opportunity for everybody alive today, but it’s probably even a better opportunity for those who haven’t been born or aren’t here yet,” Mauro said. “This is lasting infrastructure that really connects our communities.
“This is another way that we as a Peninsula are working really closely together across different governments and different agencies, because we need to depend on each other.”
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Reporter Elijah Sussman can be reached by email at elijah.sussman@sequimgazette.com.
