Peninsula Daily News and National Park Service
PORT ANGELES — Facilities throughout Olympic National Park are getting improvements this summer, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
The federal stimulus money provided $3 billion to the Department of the Interior.
Of that amount, $750 million went to the National Park Service.
In addition to the Boulder Creek rehabilitation project scheduled to get underway next week, projects in Olympic National Park include:
• The Cultural Resources/Fee Building in Port Angeles is getting a new roof as well as peel-and-stick solar panels to generate energy savings.
Other buildings throughout the park are also getting new roofs.
Redi-Construction of Port Angeles is the contractor for the $238,500 project.
• About 12 miles of electrical conduit is being installed along Hurricane Ridge Road, from the Heart O’ the Hills entrance station to the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center.
The contractor for this $562,000 project is CTS Northwest Inc. of Lynnwood.
• As part of an $810,529 project, Rognlin’s Inc. of Aberdeen is working to double the capacity of the sanitary sewer treatment system in the Hoh Rain Forest, which serves the campground, picnic area, visitors’ center and employee housing.
The Boulder Creek project involves work on one of the most popular “trails” in Olympic National Park — the old road to Olympic Hot Springs.
Olympic National Park officials are spending more than $1 million in federal stimulus funds to turn the old road into a real footpath.
The 2.4-mile route to the hot springs is traversed by thousands of visitors every year.
But beginning next Monday, Aug. 16, it will be closed to public access so Saybr Contractors Inc. of Tacoma contractor can remove “asphalt from a 2.2 mile section of the former Boulder Creek Road, reducing trail width to between 24 and 30 inches,” according to the park.
In addition to removing the old blacktop, the plan calls for installing footbridges, providing drainage and parking area work at the trailhead.
The trail is expected to remain closed until the end of October.