POULSBO — The drive off of State Route 305 to Forest Rock Lane will be a smoother ride once the road is resurfaced in September.

Contracts for the $193,418 project are expected to be completed in the next two weeks with work expected to be wrapped up by mid-October.

“In the last three years, this is the first major project of this kind we’ve done,” said City Engineer Andrezj Kasiniak. Until the city council approved the use of the city’s banked tax levy, projects of this magnitude were undertaken on a fairly infrequent basis, he explained.

“Now, we get about $200,000 each year and we can either do one big project or a couple of smaller projects,” he said, adding that the 10th Avenue project is being done in 2005 because it ranked highest on the city’s transportation improvement list.

Other roads on the list include 7th Avenue from 8th Avenue to Liberty Road, 4th Avenue from Torval Canyon to Iverson, and Fjord Drive from Hostmark Street to the south city limits.

Once work on the project begins, there should be minor traffic delays and property owners along 10th Avenue are expected to face 45-minute waits during the paving process, Kasiniak said.

“Normally streets need to be overlayed every 15 years, but we haven’t been able to do that until now,” he said, noting that before the banked tax levy funding became available there was only about $50,000 a year designated toward street overlays.

While the project was expected to cost $212,760, the difference between the estimate and actual cost will be returned to fund projects next year, Kasiniak explained. Sidewalks had been mentioned as a possible use for the extra $20,000 leftover from the budgeted amount for the project in several council public works committee meetings, but Kasiniak said they were not included in the original contract.

Sidewalks could be added to the project through a change work order with the contractor if it is feasible.

“They’re not part of the project right now,” Kasiniak said. “However, they could possibly be added.”

The project is the first example of what the city will be able to do with a stable funding source for street improvements, said Councilman Jim Henry.

“This takes us out of the Band-Aid situation where we can actually have a plan for street maintenance,” Henry said. “In the past, we let things go trying to save money.”