PORT TOWNSEND — The city’s planned face-lift of Upper Sims Way will get $1.6 million in federal stimulus money, the city manager discovered late Tuesday.

City Manager David Timmons said the state decided in a second round of allocations to give the money to the city of Port Townsend to renovate and improve the main entrance to town.

“A state committee met [Tuesday] and we just got the e-mail,” Timmons said late in the afternoon.

“The stimulus money for the first tier projects came in under budget, so money went back to the state to decide what to do with it.

“We had [Upper Sims Way] listed on the tier two list, and the committee decided we would get the money.”

At a City Council workshop in May, Timmons explained to council that the project was short on funds.

$5.75 million project

At that point, construction on Upper Sims Way was expected to cost $5.75 million, of which the city had $5 million funded.

The tentative plan was to take funds from a project on San Juan Avenue and put it on hold so Upper Sims Way could begin.

Now, none of that will have to happen.

No bare-bones construction

Timmons said the stimulus funds means no shuffling of money from other projects and no bare-bones construction.

“We were going to have to use San Juan Avenue’s construction funds as the contingency,” he said.

“Now we don’t have to do that.

“This also means we can stretch the dollars more and do a little bit more on the construction to make it nicer than we originally planned.”

Timmons said he expects the project to go out to bid this month and that construction will begin sometime in the winter of this year.

Work is expected to be finished in May 2010.

Crews will install roundabouts at Sims Way’s intersections with Howard Street and Thomas Street as part of the project.

Also being added to the roadway is a barrier between the two directions of traffic, the elimination of a free turning middle lane and sidewalk improvements along the roadway.

Timmons said he didn’t have specifics on the stimulus money right now, other than the city was definitely receiving it.

“We’ll probably have more information in the coming weeks,” he said.

The project is one of six major construction projects the city will begin this year.

Along with improvements to Sims Way, multiple downtown streetscape improvements and renovation of the waterfront esplanade are all slated to begin by the end of this year.

In May, the cost of the projects was estimated at a little more than $12.5 million.

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Reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com.