As the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) prepares an overlay of State Route 166 from SR-16 to about Port Orchard Boulevard, around Blackjack Creek, it has to make sure there’s nothing under the road of significance.

“They have to go through that process now,” said Public Works Director Maher Abed. “It’s a requirement.”

Any project of this size is required to take samples to ensure that there are no archeological remains in the soil.

In this case, the soil isn’t particularly historical. The ground underneath Bay Street is mainly in-fill, placed there to extend the town a bit for building.

But the crews were there on Tuesday for a double check, sending metal tubes into the ground and pulling up shafts of soil.

Once on the surface, analysts picked and sifted through the material, just in case it might contain some long-buried relic from South Kitsap’s past.

Andrew Larson is overseeing the project for WSDOT, and said he did not hear of anything found in the samples pulled from the ground.

He visited the Sidney Museum to look at old photos of the area, and what he saw showed that most of the soil was placed there when the Bay Street corridor was first created by landfill.

Consequently, all indications are that no artifacts will be found, thus clearing the way for the construction to begin on schedule.

The project will commence this summer. WSDOT will overlay the state-owned and -operated highway.

Once sidewalks appear, WSDOT will grind down the street surface and relay a new top.

The grinding process is to ensure the street level stays well enough below the sidewalk to maintain drainage.

The $1.5 to $2 million project is set to get under way in June, with crews working 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. Monday through Friday, ending at the beginning of September.

Meanwhile, the Port Orchard City Council is working on completing its utility undergrounding project before WSDOT starts the overlay. The undergrounding was delayed win initial bids came in much higher than estimates.

The project will be significantly scaled back to meet the budget.