SEQUIM — Major changes are slated for Railroad Bridge Park — in addition to the planned reopening of the Dungeness River Nature Center later this year.
Beginning this spring, the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe will remove a levee south of the railroad bridge, allowing the river to once again flow over both of the center’s existing lower parking lots and recover a portion of its natural floodplain.
“Removing our existing eastside parking lots has always been a part of the building expansion project,” said Powell Jones, River Center director and park manager.
“But to have the opportunity of restoring them to functioning floodplains is incredible.
“This is a perfect complement and capstone project to all the work that has been done in the park over the last few years.”
Removal of the levee, however, also means removal of existing structures and the addition of a 260-foot-steel truss pedestrian bridge from the existing trestle to span the former parking lot right onto the plaza of the new center.
The new bridge will mirror the design on the west side of the bridge, center representatives said.
Construction of the new bridge — which also includes a new 140-foot bypass from the trestle to connect with the Olympic Discovery Trail (ODT) — will begin in July, closing the trail and bridge for six to eight weeks.
Public announcements will be made well in advance of closure, center representatives said.
The new trail design calls for a “wishbone” at the east end of the railroad bridge so bicyclers and pedestrians can access the bridge without cutting through the Dungeness River Nature Center.
The design will allow the center to close the new span leading to their door for special events — such as “Dine on the Dungeness,” weddings and celebrations — without impeding pedestrian traffic.
Last year, center representatives said, more than 250,000 people crossed the bridge, which is one of the more popular spots on the ODT that stretches from Port Townsend to the Pacific Ocean.
The park’s amphitheater and outdoor classroom, designed and built by volunteers 30 years ago, will be replaced by the tribe, with new structures and spaces designed to complement the new park layout and aesthetics.
In the area currently occupied by the parking lots, the tribe also will build about 350 feet of side channel to create salmon spawning and rearing habitat.
Because of more than three decades of asphalt covering, impacts from vehicles and accumulation of tire shredding and oil leaking into the earth at the current parking lots, soil will be scooped and removed before substrate is layered for the new riverbed, center representatives said.
The Dungeness River Nature Center’s new parking lot, slated to open this spring, will offer direct access onto the Olympic Discovery Trail with no barriers or hills, about 250 feet from the bridge.
Jones said the lot should be ready for use sometime in March.
These changes are expected to be complete by next fall, and are funded in part by the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe with significant funding from the Washington Department of Ecology Floodplains by Design program.
Reopening
The multi-million-dollar expansion of the Dungeness River Nature Center is still in process, but shipping delays for some essential pieces of equipment have pushed its official opening — and community celebration — further into 2022, said Jones, the center’s director.
Jones said the community can expect a grand opening sometime in the middle of the summer.
The expanded and remodeled facility will include a 150-person meeting room, small conference/classroom, exhibit room, new office, gift shop, commercial catering kitchen, concession stand, wildlife viewing room, atrium, and a large patio for outdoor activities.
Funding for the expansion has come from community donations along with a $1.5 million state grant from taxpayers and $300,000 from the M. J. Murdock Charitable Trust.
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Michael Dashiell is the editor of the Sequim Gazette of the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which also is composed of other Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News and Forks Forum. Reach him at editor@sequimgazette.com.
