Birch Bay berm project manager eyes major completion by Christmas, questions answered

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In a December 3 “Coffee with the Contractor” meeting, Whatcom County Public Works’ Roland Middleton said the vast majority of the Birch Bay berm project will be completed by Christmas.

“We’re hoping to have all of the flat work, which is the concrete work, completed all the way up to the park property before Christmas,” Middleton said, adding that the pedestrian path from Terrell Creek to Harborview Drive should also be complete by then.

Granite Construction, the county’s contractor, will also be placing more gravel on the north side of the bay near Cottonwood Beach area to protect those properties in the event of another king tide storm, he said. According to tide-forecast.com, Birch Bay will see 13-foot tides from December 15 to
December 17.

The Birch Bay Chamber of Commerce hosted a third “Coffee with the Contractor” meeting via Zoom on December 3 for residents to ask the project’s contractor and manager questions. In the meeting, Middleton and public works engineer Jim Karcher gave a brief progress report and answered questions from residents. Gairrett Orelup, the usual representative for Granite Construction, did not tune into the meeting.

The project, officially called the Birch Bay Drive and Pedestrian Facility Project, is in its second phase of construction. This week, Granite Construction installed more stormwater structures along the north side of the bay and continued grading the pedestrian path.

Public works staff said concrete will be used for the pathway in areas along the berm and limestone gravel will be used everywhere else.

Granite Construction is also planting on the south side of the berm around the finished pathway and, according to Middleton, will likely be planting along the berm through December. This area will start to have a finished look soon, he said.

Middleton said the planting is going very well and asked for people in the community to avoid walking through the plants. While some plants are visible, there are others planted between those sticking six to eight inches out of the ground that need to be protected.

“After we do the monitoring, we have to go back in and replant, to a certain percentage of what doesn’t come up,” Middleton said, asking that people remind others walking along the bay to stay on the new limestone path.

“I agree with stressing the planting,” Karcher said. “Community awareness of that will be a big deal, like [Middleton] said there’s things you’re not going to be able to see and it will really be helpful in giving the plants some time to establish.”

Middleton reminded residents that the berm is still an active construction site and people should avoid the berm when heavy equipment is in use.

Below are some questions and answers from the meeting, edited for length and clarity.

Q: Will enough material (sand and gravel) be placed on the north side of the berm? The beach on the north side has been ravaged.

Middleton: Yeah, we are very confident with the way this works. We saw it with the work that was done back in the 1980s. We saw it with this last storm. I don’t know how many people that I talked to that are on the construction crew and are inspectors that were saying, “Wow, it was amazing. The waves roll up into the rock and they roll right back.” … Yeah, so we’re very confident it will work up there, just like it’s working everywhere else.

The amount of gravel needed was anticipated. We’re purchasing enough gravel to finish it off. Rest assured, I firmly believe that it will be working as well as all the other Wolf Bauer (renowned coastal hydrogeologic engineer who provided a shoreline analysis with preliminary design elements for the county planning commission) beaches work throughout the Salish Sea and Hawaii. This is going to be the biggest and best that there is.

Q: Will there be any parking along Birch Bay Drive?

Middleton: We only lost three or four parking spaces, and those were the ones that were right in front of Bay Breeze Restaurant and Bar. Otherwise, there have been a couple spots moved around because of stormwater work, some rain gardens that are being installed to take care of the quality of the water before it goes into the bay. But, otherwise, all those parking spots that were there are going right back in.

Q: Is the Harborview Road and Birch Bay Drive drainage improvement project happening?

Middleton: That is happening. That’s a Birch Bay Watershed and Aquatic Resources Management District (BBWARM) project. Public works and BBWARM are all in the same building. So, the people that are designing that, working on that, are in the same building as the people that are designing and working on the berm. There’s constant communication between the two. The one issue that we always have in construction is timing of permits, so there’s been some coordination. And some things that we’ve had to change and move around.

Karcher: People should not be concerned. The berm gravel will be in place before the project’s outfall goes in for the Harborview project that the BBWARM stormwater program is doing. So, we’re trying to closely coordinate with them to minimize any impacts to permanent work.   

More information on the BBWARM project can be found at bit.ly/37Gh9rv.

Q: How much does each truck of gravel cost? It’s fun to think about, as each truck goes by, the amount of money that’s incorporated in this project.

Middleton: I don’t have that information. But we are over $15 million for this project, so you can do the math. And a significant amount of that is just gravel, and work that we are putting back into the community. You know, we take the lowest bid, that’s just what we do, but it was really nice to have a local contractor get the bid for this project. They’re doing great work. Granite is – from at least my perspective – very easy to work with, and they’re very community concerned. All around, I don’t know if it was worth waiting 40 years, but it was worth the wait to get to this point.

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