Downtown Sidewalk and Tunnel Lid Repairs

Strider Construction Preliminary Schedule Outline

City of Port Townsend Public Works — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:59:24 +0000

Phase 1 (2/20/12 to 5/4/2012)
- North Taylor Street starting Monday 2/20/2012
- Sewer installation
  - Start 2/23/2012
  - Finish 2/24/2012
- Stormwater installation
  - Start 2/27/2012
  - Finish 3/01/2012
- Franchise Utility Installation
  - Start 3/2/2012
  - Finish 3/20/2012
- Work on sidewalk lid on the east side of North Taylor Street
  - Start 3/1/2012
  - Finish 3/30/2012
- Work on sidewalk lid on the west side of North Taylor Street
  - Start 3/20/2012
  - Finish 4/18/2012
Phase 2 (3/2/2012 to 3/22/2012)
Phase 3 (4/24/2012 to 5/25/2012)
Phase 4 (3/13/2012 to 5/24/2012)
Striping/Signage and Landscaping (5/25/2012 to 6/1/2012)

Strider Construction Co., Inc.

City of Port Townsend Public Works — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 23:25:14 +0000

The City has awarded the construction contract to Strider Construction Company, Inc. from Bellingham, Washington - http://striderconstruction.com/. The City met with representatives from Strider on Friday, February 3rd to discuss the start of construction and a pre-construction meeting is scheduled for this Wednesday. The City and Strider have expedited the execution of various contract documents to allow construction to start as soon as possible. Strider has indicated they plan to request changes to the phasing to better match their approach to the work. They plan to start work February 20th. It is likely the work will start with the northerly block of Taylor Street – storm and sewer lines starting at Water Street and moving north, and geofoam fill for buildings on the east side of Taylor Street. Strider is in the midst of preparing a detailed construction schedule and phasing plan which will be provided at the pre-construction meeting. They have indicated they plan to complete work in early June. Updates to the project phasing will be posted here as soon as they are approved by the City.

Project Bid Opening Results

City of Port Townsend Public Works — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:13:32 +0000

Please find below a link to the Sidewalk Lid & Utility Improvement Project Bid Results that were opened at the City of Port Townsend in Council Chambers on
Friday, January 27, 2012 at 11:00 AM.

Sidewalk Lid & Utility Improvement Project- Bid Results

Pre-Bid Meeting Scheduled for December 13th

ssawyer26 — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 21:51:01 +0000

The City has published notice of a pre-bid meeting scheduled for December 13th from 9:00a to 11:00a at the Cotton Building. The meeting is open to prospective contractors/bidders interested in the project. The intent of the meeting is to provide information specific to the contract unique to the requirements for working in the historic downtown area and minimizing impacts to retail activity during construction.

Click here for a copy of the notice and here for a copy of the agenda/project description.

The project is scheduled for advertisement on January 11, 2012.

Merchant Breakfast – November 3rd

ssawyer26 — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 23:12:29 +0000

Project Update Presented Nov 3rd

A project update was presented during the Port Townsend Main Street Merchant Breakfast held at the Public House on November 3rd. The update included information on federal permitting and recent refinements to the construction schedule and phasing.

Federal Permits

The tunnel repairs near Port Townsend Bay at the south end of Taylor Street require several federal permits. These permits often take several months to obtain, so the Project Team is working to expedite approvals to avoid project delays. If permits are delayed, the tunnel repairs at the south end of Taylor Street could be pushed into 2013. This work is within Grant Area DR-1825 with a due date of September 2013, so there is not a risk of losing the FEMA funding if permits are delayed.

Construction Schedule and Phasing

Refinements to the construction schedule and phasing were made after the public meeting held on October 18th (see the previous blog post for details on this meeting). Notably, the work at the south half of the Water Street/Taylor Street intersection was moved to Phase 1 to get off of Water Street earlier in the retail season and to make the underground utililty trenching more continuous from Washington Street to Union Wharf. As a result, Phase 1 is longer (since it includes more work). The overall schedule is shown at 16 weeks assuming the contractor can work on multiple phases simultaneously – a key assumption to be verified with the contracting community in the coming weeks. The construction contract will include milestone incentives for completing phases early and it will include an overall incentive for finishing the project by Memorial Day. If work extends past June, the contract will require the contractor to clean up the project site and leave until fall/winter to avoid impacts to the peak retail season.

Click here for a copy the presentation.

Value Charrette Report

ssawyer26 — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 07:06:15 +0000

The Project Team held a Value Charrette in the Cotton Building on October 10th. The charrette was a workshop to means to construct the project while minimizing impacts to downtown businesses. Participants included City Staff, Design Consultants, Downtown Merchants, Construction Experts, Port Townsend Main Street, and a Facilitator. Charrette objectives included:

Minimize impacts to business
Identify risks
Expedite construction
Add detail to the construction schedule

The participants identified 39 risks to consider for the project and 80 ideas on ways to minimize business impacts. The Project Team will create and maintain a risk register to manage the risks identified. The register is a “living document”, so risks may be added/deleted as the project progresses. The Project Team will also develop the ideas from the charrette to determine which ones will be implemented.

The participants also developed concept construction phasing and scheduling. Note, the phasing/scheduling information presented at the October 18th Public Meeting at the Cotton Building supersedes the information shown in the report.

Click here for a copy of the full charrette report.

Geotechnical Boring Tomorrow

ssawyer26 — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:54:45 +0000

A quick reminder…the Project Team will be on site drilling boring holes on Wednesday November 2nd and Thursday November 3rd. A total of three holes will be drilled, two on Taylor Street and one on Water Street. Click here for a map showing the boring locations. During the drilling, the parking stalls in the drilling area will be closed (as shown in the map). The holes will be drilled through the pavement.

Each hole will be about 50 feet deep with a diameter of 6 inches. The hole in the pavement will be about 12 inches to leave room for teh drill bit. The pavement will be patched after the drilling is complete. No Parking signs will be placed for the work areas about 24 hours in advance of the work.

Updates for the Week of October 17th

ssawyer26 — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 23:59:36 +0000

Public Meeting – October 18th

Focus on the Best Approach

As a follow up to the September 27th Design Charrette, the Project Team held a meeting at the Cotton Building to present the construction phasing/schedule and share a variety of ideas on how to help business during construction. The evening ended with attendees “dot-voting” on their preferred ideas.

Click here for the phasing/schedule presentation or here for a map of the phasing or here for the schedule

Next Public Meeting

The Project Team will present updates to ideas on how to help businesses and updates to the construction phasing/schedule at the next PTMS Merchant Breakfast, scheduled for November 3, 2012.

Geotechnical Investigations

The Project Team will be on site drilling boring holes on Wednesday November 2nd and Thursday November 3rd. A total of three holes will be drilled, two on Taylor Street and one on Water Street. Click here for a map showing the boring locations. During the drilling, the parking stalls in the drilling area will be closed (as shown in the map). The holes will be drilled through the pavement.

A typical drilling rig

NOTICE on Change of Meeting Date

ssawyer26 — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 19:21:30 +0000

Sorry for the late notice, but the Public Outreach meeting scheduled for October 11 has been moved to October 18 at 6:30p at the Cotton Building. The meeting was moved to provide one week to incorporate information gathered from yesterday’s Value Charrette – a one-day workshop held on October 10 to discuss construction methods/phasing/timelines and ways to minimize impacts to businesses.

Look for a separate post about yestready’s Value Charrette later this week, as well as an overall update on project activities.

Project Updates – September 2, 2011

ssawyer26 — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 00:06:47 +0000

The following is a summary of activities from July and August:

Meeting with WA EMD – the Project Team met with the Washington Emergency Management Division (WA EMD). WA EMD administers the FEMA grant dollars for the State of Washington. We discussed the status of the project, findings from the assessment of tunnel areas, potential adjustments to grant boundaries, temporary shoring and schedule. The adjusted boundaries are shown here.

Expanded Tunnel Repairs – subsequent to the June Merchant’s Breakfast, the Project Team looked at tunnel areas that do not currently need repair, but will need repair within the next 30 years. As a result, we have expanded the tunnel areas to be repaired. All tunnel areas for repair (current needs and 30-year needs) are shown here.

Temporary Shoring – the Project Team completed plans for temporary shoring. The City advertised for bids on August 31, and held a walk-through for interested bidders earlier today. The City will open bids on September 14^th and work is expected to start by the end of September. City staff and the contractor will be working closely with building owners and merchants to coordinate access and construction activities during construction. The work should be completed in two to three weeks.

Public Outreach Meetings – the Project Team is working to finalize details on upcoming meetings with the public which will be held on September 27th and October 11th. The purpose of these meetings will to be to discuss urban design features in the Taylor Street corridor. The Team will then present to the Main Street Merchant’s Breakfast.

Communication Plan – the Project Team has been collaborating with Port Townsend Main Street on preparing a communication plan to guide activities and develop tools for communicating with business and property owners downtown, residents, visitors/shoppers, and the community at large.

Meeting with the Port Townsend HPC – the Project Team reported on the status of the project and presented tunnel assessment findings to the Historical Preservation Committee (HPC) on August 16, 2011. The HPC provided a Certificate of Review supporting the repairs to the tunnel areas.

Scope of Construction for 2012 and 2013 – the Project Team remains committed to delivering a construction project in 2012 from President’s Day to Memorial Day, with a second project in 2013 during the same off-season window. As presented at the June Merchant’s Breakfast, most of the tunnel repairs must be completed in 2012 in compliance with the grant deadlines. However, the Project Team evaluated other potential improvements for downtown to combine with the tunnel repairs to eliminate repeated construction downtown over several years. We will be finalizing decisions in the coming weeks on the civil infrastructure and streetscape improvements to be included in the 2012 and 2013 construction projects.