Water Street sidewalk work expected to be hardest on downtown merchants

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The number of parking spaces following the completion of the Water Street Enhancement Project should remain the same, and sidewalk installation is expected to be the most disruptive part of the project for businesses.

Parking and sidewalks were two of numerous issues discussed during a May 10 meeting about the estimated $2.65 million Water Street road project from the ferry terminal to Taylor Street, which is planned for Jan. 5 through mid-June 2018. About 70 people attended the meeting, which was sponsored by the Port Townsend Main Street Program.

The project originally was going to be a simple repaving project, but its scope was expanded after an old, brittle water main and a buried concrete road, which causes cracking in the asphalt, were taken into consideration.

The project details are not yet finalized, which is why planners are meeting with the public.

MORE TREES

One possible change is to add more trees at the western end of the project area to serve as a visual cue to let eastbound drivers know they’re entering downtown and should slow down.

Another planned change is to turn the waterfront end of Tyler Street into a pedestrian-friendly plaza. Currently, that waterfront area is used primarily for parking.

“That has always seemed – I think for a lot of people – that’s maybe not the best use of that piece of property,” said Terry Reckord of MacLeod Reckord, a landscape architecture firm.

“This is a unique situation, where right in the middle of your downtown you’ve got access to a beautiful little beach. And to park cars in it is probably not the best use of that little piece of street. We’re suggesting here that we turn that into, essentially, a public space, a public plaza … we’ll take that daily parking out of there.”

Parking could still be available there, but it might be on a flexible basis, perhaps with the area being closed to parking on the weekends, but otherwise open primarily to pedestrians, officials said.

Removable bollards – round metal poles about 3 feet high that are movable – could be installed to prevent vehicle access when appropriate.

The entire intersection of Tyler Street could be paved with concrete rather than asphalt to signal to motorists that they’re in a different space and to look for pedestrians. Crosswalk areas of the road at the Tyler Street intersection could be raised a few inches to match the height of the sidewalks.

A low seat wall may be installed near the Quimper Mercantile area to help break up the “sea of paving” created by the street and large parking lot there.

Another meeting is planned for sometime this summer, and another in September. Bids are planned to be wrapped up by early fall.

Scott Sawyer, transportation design manager for SCJ Alliance consulting service, said the work is to be done about one block at a time, not the entire length of the street at once.

“The nature of construction … we make our best plans and then we roll with changes,” he said.

FIVE PHASES

Sawyer said the project is planned in five main phases:

January through February 2018: Putting utilities underground and working on lateral (i.e., not main) sewer lines. The utilities are to be buried underneath the new street, close to the curb.

March: Removing the buried concrete road and replacing the old water main.

The concrete road is buried at a shallow depth – only 3 inches of asphalt cover it. As a result, asphalt over the road cracks easily and degrades much faster than is typical.

Sawyer said the asphalt layer is flexible, but the concrete road is not, leading to “alligator cracking,” which allows water to get inside the road and break it down.

If the road were simply overlaid with fresh asphalt, the new asphalt would crack again. Thus, Sawyer said, it was best to remove the buried concrete.

April through mid-May: Curbs and sidewalks.

“This is where the rubber meets the road, so to speak, for you as a merchant, because now we’re working right up on your front door,” Sawyer said.

The plan is to leave the north sidewalk alone for as long as possible so that shoppers may use it. The curbs will be built first, then the sidewalks. Plates are to be placed across the wet concrete as it dries to allow access to businesses.

“Our commitment is to make sure that you have access to your store at all times. During this time, this will be the most disruptive. This is when it’s going to look the most intimidating to the shoppers,” Sawyer said.

The current sidewalks are tilted and not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Sawyer said sidewalks aren’t supposed to be angled at more than a 2 percent grade, “and there’s definitely areas where they’re tipped greater than that,” he said.

Gutters also are to be improved. Sawyer said one problem at present is that when store owners wash seagull poop off the sidewalks, the foul water collects in low areas. The water then partially evaporates, resulting in a bad smell.

Mid-May: Paving new asphalt should only take a day or two. Flaggers are to guide traffic.

Mid-May through mid-June: Striping of the road, signage, general cleanup. Some time is required to allow the striping paint to dry completely, which enables it to last longer.

Earlier in the planning, it was thought that the project could result in three more parking spaces being available. But due to space required to allow delivery trucks to negotiate turns, and due to space needed for rain gardens (for filtering pollutants from stormwater), those extra three spaces had to be removed. Consequently, the final parking space count is to remain as it is now, at about 62 spaces.

“We’ve lost some of the plus-three that we had, but we are still net zero loss,” Sawyer said.

Once the project is complete, there will not be a dedicated bicycle lane. Bicycles and automobiles will have to share the road.

Questions and answers

People who attended a Water Street Enhancement Project presentation May 10 asked officials a number of questions that are mostly likely on the minds of other residents. The following are some of those questions, and answers:

Q: Is the project behind schedule already?

A: Scott Sawyer, transportation design manager for SCJ Alliance consulting service, said it is not. He said the project is scheduled to advertise bids in September.

“We’re on that schedule. We’re not deviating from it,” Sawyer said.

He said that September is a good time for low prices because it’s an off-time for construction companies.

“They are more hungry for work,” he said.

“Port Townsend is a little bit unique in that it sits in a rain shadow, so it affords us some opportunity to be working in January, where a lot of places in western Washington really wouldn’t try to work that early in the year, because there’s too much rain. They’d be starting more in the April-May time frame.”

City engineer Dave Peterson added, “The council has approved the project and some bond money to go forward with this. Those bonds have been sold, so we’re committed there.”

Grant funds also must be used before they expire.

Q: What is the deadline to complete the project?

A: The middle of June 2018.

Q: What end of the street is to be worked on first?

A: Sawyer said he preferred to be flexible and let the contractor determine which end would be worked on first.

Q: How does the schedule for this project compare to the 2012 Taylor Street project?

A: The Taylor Street project involved building tunnels, which complicated that project. But there are no tunnels on the Water Street project. Also, the Taylor Street project started later, in mid-February, and the Water Street project is starting Jan. 5.

Q: Where is the buried concrete road located?

A: It runs from the ferry dock to Tyler Street. It is buried in the eastbound lane (south side) of Water Street. “You can see it,” Sawyer said of the buried concrete, “if you look at the asphalt cracks.”

Q: Will the contractor be penalized if it does not meet the deadline?

A: Standard contracts include both “carrots and sticks.” Sawyer said the carrots were more effective. The sticks are called “liquidated damages” by which actual losses could be recovered, but no punitive fines could be legally levied.

Q: Are there studies that show how much a business might lose in sales during a project like this?

A: There are all sorts of studies that come to all kinds of conclusions. “If you go look for it and you want to say the sky comes crashing down … whatever you want to find, you’ll find it.” Another audience member said she saw sales drop 9 percent during a similar project.

Q: Will work be done at night or on weekends?

A: Night work and weekend work are expensive, but could be done, Sawyer said. Night work involves overtime pay. Night work is also slower and more dangerous.

Q: Can you require the contractor to park at the park-and-ride and shuttle workers to downtown?

A: Yes.

Q: When water-main work is being done, how long will the water be turned off?

A: A few hours.

Q: Because of the project, there will be congestion at the intersection of Sims Way and Washington Street. What can be done to mitigate this?

A: Sawyer hadn’t considered this point, but said that about 5,500 vehicles use Water Street every day. “It’s not an extraordinarily high number. It’s actually a pretty low number.”

Q: More people will use Washington Street, and there’s already too much traffic near the post office. Can you install speed bumps to slow motorists?

A: Sawyer said he would look into it.

Q: Can the contractor work around festivals?

A: The contract will include the dates of festivals, which are often on weekends and holidays anyway.

Q: Can police be used to ensure that parking spots are occupied no longer than two hours and that workers don’t park downtown?

A: Workers will not park downtown.

Q: Can construction funds be used for a shuttle to the park and ride?

A: No, grant funds cannot be used for that.

Q: Since the road will be ripped up, can you install utility lines for undeveloped lots for future use?

A: Sawyer said that was possible.

Q: How will I know how to adjust my hours for walking tours of downtown?

A: The contractor is to provide a detailed schedule and construction sequence.

Q: Are telephone poles going away?

A: Yes, but not by the end of the roadwork. It will take time for the PUD and other utility providers to do that work after the road project work is complete.

Q: Will there be electrical outlets for holiday lighting so we don’t have to run power cords through windows?

A: Yes, there will be heavy-duty power outlets located in the tree wells.