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PATCHED AND OPEN AGAIN – The steel plate on Maple Avenue last weekend at the approach to the Rainbow Bridge has been removed and the utility work under the street finished. When the Didgwalic Wellness Center property parking lot on the east side is paved in late August, the road will be, also.
La Conner's underground – at least on S. Maple Avenue – has been in plain sight the past few days.
Welch Brothers Construction has cut deeply into and through the heavily traveled roadway's surface to extend a water main that will serve the future Didgwalic Wellness Center transitional housing and staff office facility on Maple Avenue near the east approach to the Rainbow Bridge.
La Conner Public Works Director Brian Lease said on Monday that the work upgrades an existing water main to improve fire flow to the site so it meets code requirements.
The former apartment complex is now being remodeled to serve Didgwalic clients transitioning from treatment at its Fidalgo Island center to full independence from addiction.
The utility work running beneath Maple Avenue is separate from what has already begun on the property, a project that will include conversion of a house once used as a law office into space for Didgwalic counseling, security and related staff personnel.
"There are multiple things happening there," Lease told the Weekly News on Monday. "There's a bunch of stuff involved."
That has included a Town right-of-way permit for traffic control on south Maple, which reduces the avenue to one-way traffic alternately north and south administered by flaggers while work is underway.
"A project like this can be difficult," said Lease, "because the work is being done where there's a lot of traffic and you have to keep one lane open."
Utility work was finished Monday. Tuesday the road was open, having been temporarily paved. Paving will be completed when the property's parking lot is paved six to eight weeks from now, Lease estimated.
Maple Avenue wasn't the only hub of activity here as the July 4 holiday approached. Preliminary work began Monday on the long-awaited La Conner fire station roof replacement project. A two-man crew with a Genie lift was on-site through the day at the Chilberg Road building.
The town council last February approved a $295,000 bid to have the fire hall roof replaced.
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