POULSBO — The proverbial lump of coal local officials received when the bids for the State Route 305 widening project were opened turned into a diamond Friday.

Stan Palmer Construction of Port Orchard was the apparent low bidder June 1 at $14.9 million, which was $3.5 million more than the state engineer’s estimate of $11.4 million.

Even so, news that the necessary funding for the project had been secured reached Mayor Kathryn Quade early Friday morning.

“It’s a great day for Poulsbo, and all of the teamwork paid off,” Quade said, adding that the city was prepared to provide an additional $100,000 for the project.

The team of people working to secure additional funding reached across all levels of government, including Gov. Christine Gregoire’s office, she said.

With the funds, the next challenge for the project will be ensuring that motorists are aware of the traffic impacts that will be part of the package, Quade said.

Both 23rd District state representatives expressed their pleasure that the project is moving ahead as scheduled.

“I’m doing great, because I just got the heads up that we’re going to award the contract today,” State Rep. Beverly Woods said, adding that the widening project has been on the state’s list since 1998 and couldn’t be delayed any longer for two reasons. “No. 1, materials’ costs will be rising and we have to relieve the congestion.”

The project had to be awarded by Friday to allow the contractor to make the “fish window,” which is the time that salmon migrate out of local streams and rivers into the waters of the Puget Sound, she said.

Much of the credit for the project moving forward goes to the state’s Transportation Improvement Board, which awarded the city of Poulsbo another $1 million grant without the city having to provide matching funds, she said.

“They really came through for us, and thanks also goes to Paula Hammond, who is Doug MacDonald’s assistant,” Woods said. “Because DOT is a cabinet position we had to get the Office of Financial Management to sign off on it as well.”

Even though the project is in Poulsbo, it’s a regional project that will affect the entire SR 305 corridor, she said, adding that that was one of the arguments used to secure the additional funding.

“Now we have to put up with a little construction congestion, and I hope everyone will be patient,” Woods said.

As soon as word of the funding shortfall reached her June 1, State Rep. Sherry Appleton (D-Poulsbo) said she immediately called Washington Secretary of Transportation MacDonald’s office and began working to find the necessary funding.

“I understand the bid will be accepted, and they will award the bid today,” Appleton said.”It looks very good.”

“We’ve been aggressively pursuing delivery of this project and we are working diligently on a number of fronts to come up with the money,” said Lloyd Brown, Washington State Department of Transportation Olympic region communications manager.

Friday morning, WSDOT officials were waiting for final approval to allocate the additional funds to the project, Brown said.

Along with the widening project, Stan Palmer Construction will also be installing a sewer force main along the highway from Bond Road to the city’s Central Interceptor south of the city limits.

The sewer force main is tied in with the construction of the Bond Road Pump Station, which is expected to be approved in the next couple of weeks, City Engineer Andrzej Kasiniak said.

The majority of the force main installation will occur at night except for the area around Tolefson Street, which is residential, Kasiniak said.

“It’s the same as for the 305 widening project conditions, which were approved by the city council in October,” he said.

The intersections between Bond Road and the south city limits will be closed periodically during the force main installation, but advanced notice of those one-night closures will be given, Kasiniak said.

While the city and Olhava owner First Western Associates are working on the sewer projects, WSDOT will be resurfacing SR 305 from the city’s south city limits to the Bainbridge Island ferry terminal at Winslow.

Preparatory work for the paving is set to begin July 5 and the contractor, Ace Paving Co. of Bremerton, will start the $3.6 million project from the Poulsbo end, said WSDOT Project Manager John McNutt.

“If all goes well, we should be paving by the end of July,” McNutt said, adding that the work will be done at night.

The work will be done from 7:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday.

Any traffic delays during the project should be 10 minutes or less, but that depends on how much work the contractor has to accomplish each night, he said.

“Two nights of paving would put us a mile away from Poulsbo,” McNutt said. “With the schedules of both projects things will work out just fine.”