Port Orchard wins design grant for Annapolis Creek culvert; city to accept $425,000 RCO grant with $75,000 local match

Port Orchard staff told the finance committee that the city has been awarded a design grant to replace the Annapolis Creek culvert, a wooden box culvert that staff and engineers have identified as a fish passage barrier and near the end of its useful life.

Staff said the grant from the state Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO) will fund design work to take the project from about 30% to 100% and that the awarded amount is about $425,000. The city would provide roughly $75,000 in local matching funds, to be paid from storm capital dollars, staff said. “We have a wood wall retaining wall that holds up that portion of Bay Street, and there's actually a wooden constructed box culvert,” project staff explained while showing plan views; the committee was shown a screen image of the alignment and how the new alignment would realign the culvert headwall and remove a 45-to-90-degree skew.

Staff told the committee the culvert replacement is already a priority in the city's capital improvement plan for stormwater and that the project could be phased: design under the RCO grant would precede seeking construction funds. Committee members asked about traffic impacts during construction; staff said many culvert projects use precast elements and staged work with temporary traffic control, portable traffic signals or flaggers, and that detours around the site are possible.

Staff requested committee support to accept the grant at the full City Council meeting; accepting the grant obligates the city to the local match and starts the design schedule. No formal committee vote was taken at the finance committee briefing; staff said the item will appear as a council agenda item for acceptance of the grant.