Construction Alert No. 10
Pioneer Way Reconstruction Project

June 20, 2011

Latest News on the Archaeological Remains

Since the last project briefing on Friday afternoon, a team of two from the Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (DAHP) has visited Oak Harbor and we know a little more about the steps ahead of us. On Saturday, DAHP staff performed an initial assessment of the discovery site and the piles of dirt that were removed last week. As widely reported in the media and based on the visible physical evidence, the remains are almost certainly of Native American origin which means that tribal governments must be notified. Based on our location, notification will go out today from DAHP to eleven tribes who in turn have five days to express interest in being a part of the process from here on out. In the meantime, the State is preparing an emergency excavation permit that will allow the City to begin the process of sifting through the excavated material. This work will be performed by a firm that specializes in cultural resource management.

From a construction standpoint, the good news is that the DAHP staff gave the go-ahead to substantially reduce the size of the protected area to right around the discovery site (approximately 50 x 30 feet). This decision allowed us to re-open Pioneer Way for one-way traffic just after noon on Saturday and will allow Strider to continue working to excavate the final sections of new roadway. All of the remaining excavation work will be monitored by an archaeologist, with any new finds handled according to State law. It is still too early to determine to what extent the discovery may affect the overall construction schedule. Certainly, the main discovery area will lag behind the rest of the project for at least a week or more but work on the vast majority of Phase 2 will continue as scheduled.

Key City Contact People

Larry Cort
Project Manager
360-914-7107
lcort@oakharbor.org

Joe Stowell
Project Engineer
360-279-4520
jstowell@oakharbor.org

Rhonda Severns
City Utilities
360 914-7256
rhseverns@oakharbor.org