Birch Bay Drive should be paved with two lanes by July 4

Birch Bay Drive will be fully functional this summer after all.

The road along Birch Bay is damaged and closed in sections from a December 20 windstorm that whipped the bay onto and over the road, tearing away chunks of asphalt.

Whatcom County officials had considered waiting until after the Birch Bay berm beach restoration project was complete to repave Birch Bay Drive, as that project will bring in up to 5,500 truckloads of sand and gravel to the beach and cause a lifetime of wear to the road. Instead, the county will temporarily repave the road and open it by July 4, said Roland Middleton, special projects manager for Whatcom County Public Works.

Work will start in March; county crews plan to cut away damaged sections of asphalt and re-grade them with gravel by April. From April to June, the road should get repaved and striped. The entire drive will be open for two-way traffic once that’s complete.

Both lanes will stay open during berm construction, but will close periodically with flaggers, Middleton said. When berm construction is finished – currently slated for spring 2021 – the county will come back and repave and restripe the road.

“The pavement we will be laying down this year is temporary pavement; it’s not going to be shoddy but it’s not the final product,” Middleton said. “We really want to get back in there and repave the whole surface of the road as soon as we can.”