Construction Alert No. 24

November 4, 2011

Pioneer Way Archaeological Work Winds Down

Today (Friday), Northwest Archaeological Associates will wrap up work within the main excavation and recovery area between Ilwaco and Ireland Streets that has been fenced and screened since late June. In bringing what will be the new street down to the required grade, the archaeologists have recovered all exposed cultural materials and removed them for temporary storage in preparation for re-burial at a later date.

On Monday morning, the City crew will move into the site and lay geotextile fabric over the excavated area, followed immediately by gravel spread over the fabric to form the base of the new street. The gravel will then be compacted and leveled for use by vehicles (it will not be paved until later). Once the southern lane is ready for travel (likely late that same day or Tuesday), the fencing will be removed and the traffic re-routed from the north lane to the south lane.

Looking ahead, the original plan called for moving the archaeological crews to the northern half of the street once the southern half could be used for traffic. City staff have been working on a possible design change for the northern half that would, if successful, eliminate the need for any additional excavation in the parking area planned for the north side. If we are successful with this change, the remaining archaeological work would be limited to shallow testing in sidewalk areas and other locations where conduit is still needed, relatively minor excavation in transitional areas at the foot of Ireland and Ilwaco Streets, and monitoring during trenching.

Strider Construction will return to finish building the street following completion of the final archaeological testing and excavation – tentatively right after Thanksgiving. Obviously, weather has become the biggest factor in determining the pace of final completion.

As always, please give us a shout if you have questions.

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