Should Kenmore Air ever need another runway, albeit a congested one, the new Monroe Landing Road should prove more than adequate now that Krieg Construction has widened the 1.4-mile stretch of pavement and given it a much needed facelift.

The $1.5 million county project began July 17. To date, the project is approximately $150,000 under budget and 13 days under the time alloted for the 100-day undertaking. If not for a three-week utility delay out of Krieg’s control, the project would have been completed even sooner.

“I think we only lost about six days because of bad weather,” said Roger Edwards, Island County Public Works engineering technician, adding that Krieg used the more mild summer months to bust through a bulk of the work.

Randy Brackett, Island County Public Works assistant engineer, said the project has been a breath of fresh air. The roadwork reached substantial completion in mid-December.

“They’re not at final completion, but they had substantial completion a while back,” he said. “Substantial means we can take over the project and allow cars to travel on it unobstructed; there’s no safety issues. And then things like seeding the embankment, mailboxes, the sundry items.”

With driveway connections nearly finished, final completion looms on the horizon. Twenty-six heavy-duty mailbox stands were also installed.

Krieg, an Oak Harbor outfit, pleasantly exceeded expectations, Brackett said.

“In the public arena, you award projects based on the lowest price to qualified contractors,” he said. “That leaves us with a wide experience of contractors with various degrees of achieving projects successfully. What we found in this particular contract was Krieg Construction, a local contractor, doing a terrific job. They scored very highly in the performance of their work.”

Krieg proactively helped alleviate any issues residents had with project.

“We even found that some issues neighboring property owners had with the project were reduced, if not resolved, by the way Krieg’s crews responded,” Brackett said.

The county recently received a note of thanks from Wes and Pauline Nordlund, who live on Monroe Landing Road.

“Public Works is an unseen entity for the most part,” Brackett said. “We’re especially pleased when we get those.”

The Monroe Landing project was divided into halves. The north half was carried out in a rural area bordered by farms, as well as a fire station and now functioning airport. Krieg was able to put in 12-foot lanes and six-foot shoulders.

“It was fairly level,” Brackett said. “It was the easier part of the project. It’s a straight shot, no tricks to it at all.”

The south half was different, as the road ran through a residential area. During the design process, area residents were consulted and understandably perturbed because the shoulders were shown extending into their existing driveways.

“We took their concerns and revised the project,” the engineer said. “We ended up with 11 foot lanes and five foot shoulders. We minimized the impact. Undoubtedly there are still some folks who feel pinched, but we haven’t heard any complaints.

“We did a number of things to keep the road as absolutely narrow as we could and yet still function as a collector, or arterial.”