Clallam County completes Town Road relocation and floodplain restoration after multiyear, multi‑grant effort

Clallam County officials reported that a multiyear effort to relocate Town Road out of the Dungeness River floodplain and to restore the river’s historic floodplain has reached substantial completion after more than a decade of planning, grants and phased construction.

County staff presented a timeline showing the project’s evolution from an original 2002 placeholder roadway reconstruction through a major redesign, levee setback work, restored floodplain and a new pedestrian and bicycle trail on the new roadway embankment.

The plan matters because relocating the road and setting back the levee was intended to reduce flood risk for adjacent properties, reconnect the river to its historic floodplain and improve salmon and wildlife habitat while restoring a regional transportation link. County presenters told commissioners the work also produced a raised pedestrian/bicycle trail, guardrail, stormwater treatment measures and other features not normally installed on county roads.

County staff said the Town Road section is a roughly 2.8‑mile stretch from Woodcock Road north to the old schoolhouse. Design alternatives considered between about 2009 and 2016 included several levee and road alignments; the final approach combined a continuous setback levee, removal of the 1964 levee at the river edge, and…