The City of Bremerton will seek five grants worth more than $6 million to fund five different projects.
The proposed projects include paving on Belfair Valley and Lake Flora roads, installation of traffic calming devices on Hanford Avenue, continuing remediation work at the former Chevron property, streetscape improvements on Washington Avenue and replacement of the city’s existing pedestrian signals.
In all, the city will seek some $6,076,250 in grant money and only be on the hook for $568,750 in local matching funds.
The first grant is a Federal Highway Administration grant for road preservation. The city will apply for $389,250 with a local match of $60,750 to do road work on the northern 4,100 feet of Belfair Valley Road and along Lake Flora Road. Grant money must be used for preservation rather than new construction or reconstruction and city staff identified dig-outs of failing pavement segments and a two-inch overlay of the road surface as necessary improvements.
The second request is for $15,000 through a Community Development Block Grant, with no matching funds required, for traffic calming on Hanford Avenue between Wheaton Way and Bledsoe Avenue. The money will be used for three or four calming devices (likely a combination of speed bumps and roadway narrowing). The complete scope of the project would be developed and coordinated with members of the neighborhood upon receipt of funding.
The third application will be for a remedial action grant in the amount of $72,000 for ongoing work at the city’s former Chevron property. This funding requires a 10-percent local match of $8,000.
In 2007, the city entered into an agreed order with the Washington State Department of Ecology for cleanup of the former Chevron property in Evergreen Rotary Park.
The cleanup construction was completed in two phases, the initial phase was done in 2009 and consisted of a chemical oxidizing reagent in the north half of the site and excavation and removal of small contamination “hot spots” in the south half of the site. The second phase was performed in 2011 and and consisted of additional oxidizing of hot spots.
“The chemical injection approach was selected since the mass excavation alternative for the entire site was very expensive ($5.7 million) and was only eligible for a 75-percent grant, compared to the selected alternative ($1.1 million) which was grant funded at 90 percent,” a city staff report states.
Officials say that the injected chemicals will continue to reduce contamination at the site and desired levels could be achieved within five years. In the meantime, the city hopes to use a $72,000 grant for two semiannual groundwater sampling events in the first year of the ongoing monitoring.
Finally, the city’s fourth and fifth grant applications will go the Washington State Department of Transportation’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Program. One grant is for streetscape improvements on Washington Avenue and the other is for the replacement of pedestrian signals and audio-tactile buttons.
The streetscape project would make street and sidewalk improvements on Washington Avenue and 11th Street from 400 Condominiums to Pacific Avenue.
“The project would be constructed in conjunction with the Washington Avenue Beachmain replacement project, which would reduce construction impacts to the community, and allow a portion of the utility project to be shown as a match to the grant,” states a city staff report.
City staff estimate that the streetscape improvements could cost $4.5 million.
The project to replace the city’s pedestrian signals with new signals that include count-downs and audio-tactile buttons would cost $600,000 with no local matching funds proposed.
