The Town of Coupeville awarded a construction bid for the first phase of the Madrona Way Project and officials anticipate construction will start next week.

The bid was awarded to C. Johnson Construction, Inc. out of Oak Harbor. A pre-construction meeting is scheduled for Thursday.

Mayor Nancy Conard said contractors will meet with various entities from roads, utilities and town staff to map out details and what to expect.

“We hope construction will start July 16 or soon after,” she said.

Once construction begins, a detour will be put in place and Madrona Way between Broadway to Vine streets will be closed to through traffic.

“It’s about six months of disruption,” Conard said. “Local people will still be able to get into their driveways.”

A letter will be sent out to area residents explaining the disruption and detour information. Construction could go into November, depending on who gets the bid for phase Two, she said.

The town will go out to bid for the second phase on July 16.

The project is broken up into four sections. Staff established a system for the project that once C. Johnson Construction has completed the necessary utility requirements in section one, the contractor for Phase Two can come in behind them and begin the road improvements.

It will go sequentially, Conard said.

Also in an effort to stay within the timeline, the town built into the contract liquidated damages that levy fines if the contractors don’t meet deadlines and bonuses if they do.

Six bids were received for the second phase, the utility portion. Of those bids, two were eliminated due to previous safety violations and two others were eliminated do to bid errors.

C. Johnson Construction was actually the second highest bid, but the cost of the proposal came in just at the engineer’s estimate. The entire project is anticipated to cost $2 million.

The town is tying up loose ends to secure USDA funding of the $1.12 million utility portion of the project.

The road portion of the project is anticipated to cost roughly $732,000. More than $630,000 of that is already covered by a grant from the state Department of Transportation and $65,000 from the Transportation Improvement Board. The town will be responsible for about $33,000 of the road phase of the project.