Park Street closing for construction

Park Street in Shelton will be closed from Sept. 21 until Oct. 1 as Granite Construction Co. of Olympia overlays asphalt from South Seventh Street to South First Street.

For decades, Park Street was a popular path to deliver logs to the Shelton waterfront, first for the Simpson Lumber Co. and now Sierra Pacific Industries.

Now that route is closed to logging trucks.

The Shelton City Council on July 20 gave final approval to awarding a $263,000 contract to Granite Construction to overlay asphalt on Park Street from South Seventh Street to South First Street. The council gave preliminary approval at its July 6 meeting.

The heavy trucks have cracked Park Street, last paved more than two decades ago.

The project includes planing the roadway and adjusting the existing utility structures. It also includes erosion control, signage, striping, traffic control and other related work.

The city's Transportation Benefit District provides the finding for the project.

In July, crews upgraded a drainage pipe that runs from Park Street to Goldsborough Creek near Seventh Street. Several property owners extended sewer and water services to their undeveloped lots prior to the paving project.

Once the paving project is complete, companies that offer gas, cable and telephone will not be allowed to tear up the road to install their utilities.

Public Works Director Jay Harris offered a list of authorized alternate truck routes to access the industrial area east of downtown Shelton: Alder Street between Seventh and First streets, Railroad Avenue between 12th and Front streets, state Route 3, Olympic Highway North from Wallace Kneeland Boulevard to Seventh Street, Wallace Kneeland Boulevard, East Johns Prairie Road from North 13th Street to city limits, Northcliff Road, 13th Street from K Street to city limits, Franklin Street between Seventh and First streets, Cedar Street between Seventh and First streets, Seventh Street between Railroad Avenue and Cedar Street, and First Street.