Clallam County commissioners have awarded a $5.5 million bid for the earthwork phase of the Lower Dungeness levee setback project.

Commissioners Mark Ozias and Bill Peach voted Aug. 3 — with Commissioner Randy Johnson excused — to award the bid to Scarsella Brothers, Inc. of Kent.

The bid was the lowest of three that commissioners opened in a public meeting last week.

The engineer’s estimate for the work was $5.7 million, according to county documents.

Phase 1 will build a new setback levee for the Lower Dungeness River and an embankment to realign Towne Road to allow the river to reclaim its historic floodplain.

It includes the installation of a new culvert in a Meadowbrook Creek tributary, construction of a portion of the levee embankment and new section of Towne Road farther from the river, county officials said.

Phase 1 is funded by Floodplains by Design and Puget Sound Acquisition and Restoration programs, according to an executive summary.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the long-awaited project is scheduled for Sept. 9.

In related action, commissioners approved two contract amendments with Shannon and Wilson, Inc. of Seattle for the Lower Dungeness River floodplain project.

The first amendment updates the contract to provide final design for the second phase of the project. Phase 2 is funded by a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The second contract amendment provides engineering services during construction of Phase 1, including a resident engineer, field observation, and survey and permit support during the bid and construction phases, according to an executive summary.

Scarsella Brothers is the same contractor that built a county underpass of U.S. Highway 101 near Deer Park Road in 2013.

This year, Scarsella Brothers is building a series of bridges and fish passage culverts along Highway 101 east of Port Angeles and repairing sections of state Highway 112 west of Joyce that washed out during mudslides last winter.

In other board action Tuesday, commissioners approved a letter of support for a Peninsula Behavioral Health grant application to the state Department of Commerce’s Housing Trust Fund to convert the All View Motel in Port Angeles to a low-income mental health housing center.

The $2.7 million proposed project would convert up to 27 rooms for veterans, seniors and others who suffer from a chronic mental illness.

The county’s letter of support commits $675,000 in matching funds to the PBH effort.