By Pepper Fisher
PORT ANGELES – The Washington State Dept. of Transportation is warning Olympic Peninsula residents that it’s going to be a busy season for road crews beginning as early as next month. And once things get under way, we’ll be feeling the impacts to our commutes for at least a few years.
WSDOT Regional Administrator Steve Roark says, for many, the most impactful project will be the replacement of the center locks on the Hood Canal Bridge.
“That work’s going to get underway…well, it’s underway right now. The impactful part is, we’re planning to close the bridge on four consecutive weekends starting Friday night at 11 p.m. through Monday morning at 4 a.m. We’re planning to start those four consecutive weekend closures on July 28th, and then the following three weekends into August.”
Four entire weekends in a row…in the middle of summer…no Hood Canal Bridge access. Travelers and businesses will want to start planning for that early on.
One project that will impact our lives here in Clallam County but is expected to be far less painful for commuters is the Elwha Bridge replacement just west of Port Angeles. Roark says that major construction project could get started as early as next month.
“The new bridge will be built offline, so there won’t be any significant impacts to travelers until we cut over to the new alignment and put traffic on that new bridge. When we do that, we are going to have a nine-day full closure with a detour via Highway 112 and Highway 113. So, that will be impactful, but overall it’s going to be a much better alignment. We’re smoothening the curve at Olympic Hot Springs Road, there’ll be a nice parking facility there for recreational use. We’re really excited about this project.”
Roark says they expect the new bridge to be open for traffic in the fall of next year.
The big project, which is actually three projects happening at roughly the same time, and the one that will take the longest to complete, will be the fish passages at Lee and Ennis Creeks under Highway 101 just east of town near Walmart, and at Tumwater Creek near the top of the Truck route. Those jobs, which will take about two years to complete, were going to get under way this year as well. But Roark says they’ve been rescheduled for next year.
“Part of the reason for that is, we have so much work going this year, we’re trying to strike the right balance year over year. The next few years we just have an unprecedented amount of construction activity here in the North End. We know tourism is important here in the North Peninsula. So is getting to doctor’s appointments and and your daily commutes, but at the same time the work has to get done. So, we’re trying to be as sensitive as we can, at the same time, advance these projects in a meaningful way.”
Something new this year on the WSDOT website is a brand new open house feature (click here), specifically for updates on Olympic Peninsula projects for 2023.
Steve Roark wanted to leave us with this message for travelers.
“There’s no way around it. It’s going to be a busy construction season. And we are looking to the community. We’re asking for everyone’s help to stay informed, stay engaged, and plan ahead to make this go as smoothly as possible.”