Mt. Baker Road project done on time, says county
Published 10:03 am Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Everything is on schedule for the major public works project in Eastsound.
Mt. Baker Road’s makeover will be done by the end of August, six months after the construction began.
“I think people should be happy with the project when it is all said and done,” said Councilman Rick Hughes. “It won’t look like a runway … it will match the width of the road in front of the fire station.”
The project widens Mt. Baker Road from 20 feet to 30 feet from the intersection with North Beach Road to the intersection with Terrill Beach Road. There will be two 11-foot lanes with four-foot shoulders. The Terrill Beach Road intersection will be moved to the southeast to enhance sight distance for vehicles turning left across Mt. Baker Road. A five-foot wide gravel pedestrian trail has been built from North Beach Road to the Terrill Beach Road pond.
The work is being done by Orcas Excavators. What’s left on the to-do list is paving, striping the road and planting vegetation.
San Juan County received a $2.516 million dollar Rural Arterial Trust Account grant from the state to help pay for design, right of way acquisition, and construction plus a Federal Transportation Enhancement grant of $88,000 for the adjacent trail project. Public works received an additional $700,000 from the Federal Surface Transportation Program for road and trail work.
“It’s costing a little more than anticipated, but there was some wiggle room with the grant money for any overages,” Hughes said. “The project is on time and on contract.”
Drainage will be improved by replacing cross culverts, raising the road in places, and improving or installing ditches. Narrow Area Vegetated Filter Strips for filtration and treatment will improve stormwater quality.
Because the road has widened and thus destroyed 0.6 acres of wetland, compensatory wetland mitigation will be undertaken on the Land Bank’s Stonebridge Preserve, intended to enhance and rehabilitate approximately six acres of existing degraded wetlands. The mitigation includes developing wet pools for birds and amphibians and planting to revegetate the area.
The route is used by trucks as a way to bypass driving through Eastsound, and it is also a popular spot for pedestrians to walk and bike ride.
Orcas Islander Harvey Aldort wrote two letters to the editor to the Islands’ Sounder complaining about the project, primarily about the potholes and dust. Hughes said he hasn’t received many objections and feels the community will be pleased with the road’s safety improvements and the way it looks, particularly after the vegetation is planted.
Public works director Frank Mulcahy says his department has received a few complaints but overall the response has been positive.
