PORT ANGELES — After 15 years and multiple variations of the project, Towne Road — which runs along the eastern edge of the Dungeness River near Sequim — is complete at a cost about $22.5 million.
Clallam County Administrator Todd Mielke presented an overview Monday before the three county commissioners, highlighting how the project changed since it was first in the transportation improvement plan in the early 2000s to how it was finalized and reopened last October.
It eventually morphed into three separate projects: Restoring the Dungeness floodplain, including the relocation of the lower levee, plus the relocation of the upper levee known as the River’s Edge project, and the relocation of Towne Road, restoring a piece of the county’s transportation network and providing a designated pedestrian and bicycle path for recreation.
“It’s hard to keep track of that, and it’s great start for our other multidimensional, multiyear projects,” commissioner Randy Johnson said of the overview. “Hopefully this is the first step in what I consider the right direction.”
Mielke, who was hired in August 2023, said he’s gone through many documents and posted the project on his whiteboard to get familiar with all of its elements and funding sources, the vast majority of which came from grants from the state Department of Ecology, the state Recreation and Conservation Office and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
Out of the total, Clallam County contributed about $2 million.
“I kind of stepped in over the last 15 months,” he told commissioners. “The good part is, it was a different set of eyes. The bad part is figuring out how to connect the dots.”
The original discussion in the early 2000s included a $1.2 million project to resurface and potentially reconstruct the road, Mielke said.
By 2008, the focus switched to realigning the levees and restoring the wetlands in the lower Dungeness floodplain.
“The original levee was nearing the end of its design life and provided a reduced level of protection for the community against flooding,” Mielke wrote in his presentation. “It was built close to the Dungeness River, and winter flood flows in this reach of the river could be rapid enough to result in degraded fish habitat, impacting salmon runs.”
Restoring the lower Dungeness floodplain was the most complex and the most expensive, Mielke said.
“While the state was the primary funder, the project was initially managed and coordinated by the (U.S. Army) Corps of Engineers, from 2009 through 2016,” he wrote in his presentation. “This project was anticipated to have multiple phases and required coordination between federal, state, county and tribal governments. It was considered highly complex and would cost millions to complete.”
Separately, the realignment of the upper levee, or the River’s Edge project, became possible in 2018, when landowners upstream chose to sell their property, Mielke said.
The Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe took the lead on the River’s Edge project, with permitting through the Corps of Engineers, he added.
Mielke said there wasn’t just one budget for the combined projects. Instead, all three had their own funding amounts and sources, and each major phase had dedicated funding that could only be used for specific purposes. For example, the lower Dungeness floodplain had nine separate grants, and each had its own budget and deliverables.
In 2016, after preferred alternatives were developed, the Corps of Engineers withdrew as the lead for the lower Dungeness floodplain restoration project, and Clallam County stepped forward with an effort coordinated between its Department of Community Development and its Public Works department.
Just before construction began, however, the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“Contractors and engineering firms that would normally be available to provide professional services, cost estimates and bids on work were shut down,” Mielke wrote in the presentation. “Many government employees necessary to process permit reviews and approvals were no longer working in agency offices.”
During the shutdown, the county successfully applied for a $2.8 million floodplain construction grant from the state Recreation and Conservation office, adding to a series of grants from multiple sources.
Overall, the county had $5.1 million in planning, predesign and design grants, a $575,000 grant for land acquisition and relocation of buildings and infrastructure, more than $8 million in wetland and floodplain restoration grants, and $8.8 million in construction grants, Mielke said.
“The relocation of the levees has greatly enhanced protections against high winter flows and the potential for flooding,” Mielke wrote in the presentation. “The expansion and restoration of the floodplain, and reconnecting the river to more than 175 acres of floodplain, has improved wildlife habitat – and that presence of wildlife continues to grow.
“The projects have slowed the flow of the Dungeness River, resulting in better salmon and fish habitat. The local community is now using the shore of the river near the Old Schoolhouse more than ever as a recreational location to enjoy the outdoors since access to the river has improved.”
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Editor Brian McLean can be reached at 360-417-3531 or by email at brian.mclean@peninsuladailynews.com.
