EVERETT — Five docks, 700 creosote-treated pilings and about 11,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment.
The Port of Everett is launching the final phase of a cleanup of its central waterfront property. This part of the project is expected to cost $6.2 million.
“This area was really the epicenter of Everett’s milltown,” said Lisa Lefeber, the Port’s spokeswoman. “There was a lot residual contamination. This was home to pretty much all the mills. This is the area why the city got the name of the City of Smokestacks.”
After the cleanup, the Port will be able to move ahead with its ambitious Waterfront Place project, which mixes commercial and residential space and opens up trails and other open space along the water.
That project replaces an earlier plan to build 660 upscale condos and commercial and office buildings, which failed when the original developer went bankrupt during the recession.
The Port held a kickoff for the launch of the cleanup Thursday, inviting the community to come down to the waterfront. About 75 people showed up.
Magus Pacific of Everett will now start clearing out the docks, pilings and contaminated soil with work continuing through April.
The contractor will also reconstruct 360 feet of bulkhead.
An earlier cleanup costing $1.8 million dollars removed 20,000 tons of contaminated soil and 8,400 tons of concrete and asphalt from the 65-acre site.
The Port also relocated Everett Shipyard in 2009 to its terminals to the south. Everett Shipyard has since been acquired by Vigor Marine.
The cleanup ties in with the state Department of Ecology’s initiative to clean the water of Port Gardner Bay and the Puget Sound.
It’s also paves the way for the Port and potential developers to start on the Waterfront Place project, Lefeber said.
“It’s hard to get financing on a project that has environmental liabilities tied to it,” she said.
As part of the cleanup, 14th Street at the waterfront will be shut down until April. Boaters and people traveling to Hat Island can still get to the waterfront by taking Port Gardner Way, formerly 13th Street.
To learn more about the project, visit waterfront-place.com.
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