Port of Port Townsend commissioners voted unanimously May 24 to certify the completion of emergency work done to stabilize the easternmost 550-foot section of the Boat Haven breakwater. That section was built in the 1950s and had degraded significantly over the decades.

The rock structure protects the public moorage from winds and high tides.

The commission’s action means that several government agencies are to be notified that the $206,016 project is complete. American Construction Co. of Tacoma began work to repair a portion of the Boat Haven breakwater Jan. 9.

The 1950s section had large holes on the outside and the integrity of the structure was at risk. It connects to a 1,950-foot-long section of breakwater that was built in 1964, which is in better condition.

An engineer with coastal engineering firm Mott MacDonald previously concluded that the need for an immediate repair was “very high,” and that a delay would leave the structure vulnerable. Port staff concurred that delaying action could lead to accelerated additional damage and the potential for a breach under even non-extreme storm events.

“We expect this repair to buy us a few more years,” said Sam Gibboney, executive director of the port, in January. “The structure is at the end of its serviceable life, and we will need to make longer-term plans for its eventual replacement.”

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NEW GRAVEL

Dust will be less of a problem for tenants at the Port of Port Townsend by June, port officials hope.

“We are working to re-gravel the travel ways throughout the yard,” Gibboney said during the commission’s May 24 meeting.

The port plans to purchase $40,000 worth of new gravel, a type with a low content of fine particulates and clay, in order to keep dust to a minimum.

Gibboney added that over time, even the best gravel will be ground down into dust and that some amount of dust is unavoidable.

The port plans to use both in-house and contracted resources for the gravel project.

The port plans to bid for contractors to operate grading and rolling equipment. The contracted workers are to cooperate with Port personnel to dump the gravel, grade and compact the gravel, and ensure that the drainages work with catch basins.

“I think it’s going to be very noticeable to our tenants, and I certainly heard a lot of comments about the impact of dust since I’ve been here. And while it’s not a cure-all for it, I think it will have a positive impact,” Gibboney said.

The contracting work is expected to cost around $50,000, bringing the total project cost to about $100,000.

Port commissioners OK’d the re-graveling work, which is planned to be done in June.

STORMWATER WORK

Related to the gravel work is a plan to improve the port’s stormwater system.

Gibboney said that, currently, there’s a lot of backwater in the system, and with it, uncertainty about which directions the flows would go.

“The main gist of it is that we are going to work with our existing system and we are going to reset the flow structures,” she said.

“There has also been a diversion of flows to the outfall without going through the treatment systems that we already have in place, so we were not getting any advantage from the treatment systems we have in place there,” Gibboney said.

To deal with the problem, the port has come up with a plan to adjust the hydraulics of the stormwater system as well as grading.

The port plans to replace sand filters with mixed media filters and may also move treatment units to different locations. The port is also to go back to sampling the stormwater only at the outfall.

The port then turns in a report to the Department of Ecology for review.

Gibboney said the plan, if put out to bid, would cost $300,000-$400,000, an estimate that includes engineering, design, construction and a 25 percent contingency fund.

MOORING FIELD?

Could a mooring field one day stretch along the Port Townsend waterfront?

The mooring fields consist of permanent anchors, lines and buoys to keep boats in position.

“There’s enough room between the ferry dock and Point Hudson to do 20 buoys right there alone … but it comes down to how much money are we willing to invest in something,” said Port Commissioner Brad Clinefelter.

Clinefelter met with a mooring installation contractor and said that, were the port to install a mooring field, it could cost $3,000-$3,400 per mooring.

Factoring in the “swing distance,” as many as four buoys per acre could be installed.

A next step would be to determine where the moorings would be located.

Clinefelter said the mooring systems could last 20 years. The moorings would be low maintenance, because they could be inspected from surface vessels, and divers would not be required for inspections.

Clinefelter said that due to permitting, if the port were to install a mooring field, it would be more than a year away.