Camas mulls $2.1M contract for Everett Street

Camas city officials are set to approve a $2.1 million contract with PBS Engineering that will kick-start the first phase of the city’s extensive Everett Street corridor improvement project.

Camas Engineering Manager James Carothers told Camas City Council members during a Feb. 18 workshop that city staff had negotiated the agreement with PBS for project management, engineering design and permitting work related to road improvements between Northeast 35th and Northeast 43rd avenues along Northeast Everett Street.

The city’s ambitious Everett Street corridor improvement project will eventually create a multimodal traffic corridor and, according to city staff, improve safety for drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists along the 1.5-mile, two-lane portion of state Highway 500 that runs from the Lake Road-Everett Street roundabout to the city’s northern limits near Northeast Third Street. The route much of Camas to recreational points along Lacamas and Round lakes, as well as to the city’s North Shore area, Camas High School and Grove Field airport. The city expects the entire project will likely cost between $45 million to $60 million, including $18 million to $23 million to replace the bridge that crosses Lacamas Lake near the Lake-Everett roundabout.

Carothers said earlier this month that the $2.1 million contract would be paid to the engineering consultants over a five-year period between 2025 and 2029, with around $1 million planned for 2025 and “the rest parsed out over four years.”

Construction on the first phase of the Everett Street Corridor project, between 35th and 43rd avenues is tentatively scheduled to begin in 2030, Carothers said.

The city’s 2025 budget includes $571,500 for design and permitting services for the first phase of road. The city also has a $475,000 federal grant to help pay for design work, but Camas Finance Director Cathy Huber Nickerson said earlier this month that the grant funds could be in jeopardy. “Those funds are subject to being frozen because of what’s happening at (the U.S. Department of Transportation),” Huber Nickerson said, referring to the Trump administration’s cutbacks. “We’re monitoring that, but we’re in flux right now with the environment of the current administration, so we’ll see.”

Camas City Councilman John Svilarich asked Huber Nickerson what might happen if the grant is frozen.

“We’re learning from our peers,” Huber Nickerson said. “We’ll probably pull back a little bit.”

The consultant agreement will likely be included on the consent agenda at the council’s March 3 meeting.