So far, public opinion prefers an inconvenience rather than a bigger price tag for a planned new bridge over McDonald Creek in Agnew, says staff with the Clallam County Roads Department.

In August, county roads staff discussed traffic options with Clallam County commissioners for a proposed $4.73 million project to replace the 1956 McDonald Creek Bridge along Old Olympic Highway and east of Barr/Gunn roads.

Those traffic options for the project, said county engineer Ross Tyler, include either closing that portion of Old Olympic Highway off for about eight months and detouring traffic or paying about $1.7 million for a temporary bridge.

“From public input (via email and phone), 90 percent of what I got said don’t waste money on a temporary bridge,” Tyler said. “We can suffer along on a closed route.”

The proposed bridge would be 40-feet wide and include eight-foot shoulders.

If the portion of road closed to traffic during construction, vehicles traveling west would detour 1.5 miles from Old Olympic Highway to U.S. Highway 101 along Kitchen-Dick Road. Locals would keep access to private driveways near the bridge, county staff reported in August.

But a decision to close the route or place a temporary bridge hasn’t been made, Tyler said.

“After we did the first work session, we got a lot of exposure and input,” he said. “We’ll get another round of input before we do anything.”

The bridge is slated for the county’s 2017 budget but commissioners haven’t indicated one traffic option over another, Tyler said. His plan is to present the options to commissioners again in the coming weeks to see if they still want to go forward with the project during another work session.

“There’s no doubt it’s too narrow,” Tyler said.

“We’ve looked at the (available) money and need, and even if we didn’t have the federal funding in there, we’d still highly recommend it.”

Included in the funding for the bridge is $3 million from the county’s real estate excise taxes, $922,000 from county roads general funds and $808,000 from Federal Highway Bridge Preservation Funds.

Tyler said federal funding must be used by 2017 or it’s lost.

“That’s one question we’ll discuss: Are we throwing a bunch of money at a problem just not to lose the ($808,000)?”

If given the go-ahead by commissioners, Tyler said staff would push for an aggressive schedule to finish in six months, “give or take a month,” sometime in 2017.

“We want to be really aggressive,” he said. “When we do our cost estimates, we run them a little higher … and if we’re not going to have a bypass bridge, people are going to be detoured and to me every month counts.”

Tyler said the estimated $1.7 million cost for a temporary bridge is not included in the estimated $4.73 million proposal.

To comment on the project, Tyler recommends citizens call the Clallam County commissioners at 417-2233, the Clallam County Roads Department at 417-2379, and/or email him at rtyler@co.clallam.wa.us.

For more on the commissioners’ budget, visit www.clallam.net/bocc/Budget2017.html.

Rob Ollikainen of the Olympic Peninsula News Group contributed to this report.

Reach Matthew Nash at mnash@sequimgazette.com.