County Breaks Ground on Long Awaited Mickelsen Parkway Project in Winlock

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Local public officials and a handful of citizens gathered near the intersection of State Route 505 and North Military Road in Winlock Wednesday to celebrate the groundbreaking of a new public road, Mickelsen Parkway, which is intended to provide access for trucks to the Benaroya Pacific Northwest Regional Logistics Center, a 320-acre plot of industrial land in South Lewis County.

“This is a huge milestone for the county,” Lewis County Public Works Director Josh Metcalf said to the crowd on hand. “This project goes way back before me, but it is a longtime coming.”

The $2.3 million project is scheduled to be completed in three months, and upon completion, will be owned and maintained by Lewis County Public Works.

The Mickelsen Parkway project is a collaborative effort between the county, the City of Winlock, the Lewis County Economic Development Council and landowners and developers like the Mickelsen family and Benaroya Company, according to a Lewis County press release.

Metcalf offered acknowledgements to the collaborators, some of which were in attendance, some not. He thanked Lewis County’s three commissioners, the current mayor of Winlock, Brandon Svenson, former Winlock Mayor Don Bradshaw and the Mickelsen family, who were all in attendance.

Metcalf also gave his thanks to Lewis Economic Development Council Executive Director Matt Matayoshi, saying he was an integral part of seeing the project through, and state Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, for his advocacy for the project in the state legislature.

The project got $1.125 million of its funding from the Lewis County’s distressed counties fund, sometimes known as the .09 fund because it is accumulated through the state sales tax, $1.2 million from the Benaroya Company, the Bellevue-based development company that owns the industrial land, and $750,000 in funds was secured through the state legislature, according to prior reporting from The Chronicle.

Metcalf said the lowest bid for the project was $2.3 million while the rest of the funds went toward engineering, permitting, construction management and other overhead costs.



“It will be a local company working on it, too,” Metcalf said, referencing Midway Underground, a Toledo-based excavating company, that was contracted for the project

County Commissioner Bobby Jackson, who represents District 2 which covers the Winlock area, took a minute to say although the time he spent working on the project — about two and a half years, he estimated — dwarfs the amount of time others have put into it, he is excited for the economic prospects of the project.

“We are going to be able to provide as many as 300 jobs because of this project,” Jackson said to the crowd.

County Manager Erik Martin said the beginning of construction on Mickelsen Parkway is 15 to 16 years in the making, while some reckoned it was two decades.

“I look forward to this project turning (a profit),” Metcalf concluded.