The City of Hoquiam plans to apply for environmental permits next week for the city’s first major stormwater improvement project of the year, the Ramer Street pump station.

“It’s currently under design,” said Hoquiam City Administrator Brian Shay. “We plan to apply for environmental permits – since it’s along the river there’s a series of permits we need – next week, then we’re on target to bid the project in March for construction this summer.”

Shay was able to secure unused funds from the Chehalis Basin Flood Authority late last year, with the stipulation that money be used for construction no later than July 1, 2017. The pump station is a big piece in the city’s plan to stave off the type of flood damage Hoquiam saw in the flooding of 2015.

The pump station would be placed alongside an existing sewer pump station that can be seen where Ramer Street ends near the west bank of the Hoquiam River, just north and east of the Lincoln Street Grocery store.

“There’s an existing sewage pump station that pumps the sewage a different direction,” said Shay. “What we’re doing is adding on to the existing sewer pump station and make it a combination sewer and floodwater pumping station. There will be two different pumps on completely different power sources and two independent lines going two different ways.”

City officials had a meeting scheduled for Thursday to discuss the specifications of the project, including just how large of a pump is required; initial City documents regarding the project called for one with a capacity of 3,500 gallons per minute. The outfall into the Hoquiam River will be fitted with a tide gate to prevent rising water from high tide events from hindering the outflow of the stormwater. The total price tag for the pump station is about $1.3 million.

More improvements are coming in 2018, said Shay. “The Department of Transportation is going to be repaving basically all of 101 — Simpson, Park and Heron Street — in 2018,” he said. “We are going to coordinate with the state to have the paving and sidewalk replacement done in tandem with our water line work.”

This phase of the flood control initiative involves replacing old, degrading and too-small existing stormwater drainage pipes with new larger 20-inch pipes to better carry the water to the Ramer Street pump station during storm events. The city has already secured the funds for the water line replacement to the tune of around a million dollars. Shay hopes by limiting construction to a block at a time in addition to working with the state on their project, traffic impacts can be minimized when large sections of Simpson Avenue are torn up to replace the pipes.

“We will go to bid to do our water line work by March or April for summer construction,” said Shay. He says the city is currently in formal talks to hammer out the details of coordinating projects.