EDMONDS – One of two parking lots at the popular Marina Beach Park will likely be closed for the next four to five weeks while a culvert is replaced.
The north lot has been cordoned off since Nov. 2, when part of a culvert that carries Willow Creek from the Edmonds Marsh to Puget Sound collapsed, creating a sinkhole.
City engineering staff will ask the City Council tonight to approve spending $375,000 to replace the culvert.
City street manager Jim Kammerer was driving a city truck through the parking lot when the ground collapsed under him, city public works director Noel Miller said.
“It’s a good thing it was one of our guys and not the public,” Miller said.
Kammerer was uninjured and was able to drive his truck out of the hole. It is about 10 to 15 feet long, three to four feet wide and two to three feet deep, Miller said. About two or three feet of asphalt is missing, he said.
“It’s big enough that it could be a problem” for safety, Miller said, explaining why the entire parking lot is closed.
There has been no problem with flooding or water backing up, Miller said.
“The water is still getting out of the marsh,” he said.
The money for the repairs would come from the city’s storm water fund, a surcharge paid by residents and businesses in the city on their water and sewer bills. The plan is to replace the culvert the length of the parking lot, about 280 feet, said city engineer Dave Gebert.
“Since it’s a 40-year-old pipe, you probably want to replace the whole thing,” Gebert said.
The corrugated metal culvert was installed in 1961 to divert Willow Creek around Port of Edmonds property, Miller said. A portion of the culvert, west of the parking lot extending beneath the beach, was replaced in 1999.
The eventual plan – when the proposed ferry and transit terminal is built on the adjacent Unocal site – is to divert the creek to the south and open it to daylight.
The city recently approved spending $587,000 to extend the Willow Creek outfall pipeline 300 feet into the Sound to alleviate a problem with beach sand clogging the pipe.
The south parking lot will remain open during the repair project.
Reporter Bill Sheets: 425-339-3439 or sheets@heraldnet.com.
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