PRESS RELEASE - City awarded $2.99 million in grant funds for Lawrence street repair
State funds will repair the street and sidewalks along Lawrence between Harrison and Walker.
PORT TOWNSEND – The City of Port Townsend has been awarded two grants in the past week from Washington State’s Transportation Improvement Board (TIB). The first, for $2.99 million, is a Multimodal Improvements Grant and will fully repair the Lawrence Street sub-grade and surface, as well as sidewalks, between Harrison and Walker Streets. The second grant, $260,000 for pavement preservation, will be used for chip seal paving along sections of F Street and San Juan Avenue as part of a larger chip seal project intended to preserve streets that are on the verge of failure.
Both grants are part of strong support from TIB in recent years. Additional grants from TIB include a 2024 Complete Streets grant funding pedestrian access improvements, like sidewalks, ramps, bulb-outs, and rain gardens along Lawrence Street. This project is underway now and completing in mid-December. Adjacent Tyler Street pavement repair was also funded by TIB in 2023, complementing sidewalk repairs along the corridor leading to the Bell Tower, and will be completed in 2025.
City Manager John Mauro said: “It’s really colossal, what the team has done here, and it’s a direct result of political courage from Council to move forward with implementing actions in the Financial Sustainability Initiative immediately after the Task Force report was finalized in 2023. This success also relies on very strong partnerships with local businesses and groups like Disability Awareness Starts Here, Jefferson County Farmers Markets, Jefferson Transit Authority, and Port Townsend Main Street, and support by voters with the Transportation Benefit District, which came in at nearly 80% in 2023.”
The Lawrence Street Multimodal Improvements Grant is the largest of the grants from TIB so far and requires that the City match a portion of the funding with authorization to accept the grant forthcoming from City Council, likely in January 2025. Some of the grant match may come from the storm water utility fund, REET (Real Estate Excise Tax), and the Transportation Benefit District Fund. Construction along Lawrence Street is currently planned for 2026.
