Century-old water system faces winter test

A fresh set of wooden boards pictured here were placed to help prevent further damage at the Big Quilcene Diversion. Leader photo by Jon Decker The City of Port Townsend, along with contractors from Global Diving & Salvage and the Port Townsend Paper Company worked to make temporary repairs to the Big Quilcene Diversion after contractor PCL Construction Services backed out due to safety concerns. During a Nov. 2 city council meeting, Interim City Manager Steve King described the status of the diversion as a key and aging component of the century-old Olympic Gravity Water System. TYLER JOHNSON, CITY PROJECT MANAGER “The Big Quil Diversion has bigger structural damage than we anticipated and the contractor we were working with has backed out because of increasing risk with water flow,” King said. “While we need the rain for water supply, we’re challenged to make those repairs, so we’re doing our best given the time.

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