Utility work closes Oak Harbor lanes, affects travel through early July

Utility work on Oak Harbor’s south side has closed the center lane of SE Barrington Drive between SE City Beach Street and SR 20, while flaggers are controlling alternating traffic on SE City Beach Street, creating delays for commuters, parents making daily runs, and delivery drivers moving through the city’s busiest connector streets.

Contractors with Cascade Natural Gas began the work May 20, and the city says it is expected to run for a few weeks, ending no later than July 3, 2026. The city calendar lists the project from May 20 through July 4, underscoring that drivers should plan for disruption well into early July. The most affected movement is the stretch linking SE Barrington Drive, SE City Beach Street and the SR 20 corridor, a route that carries traffic to neighborhood streets and to businesses along the south side of town.

The notice does not describe the full engineering scope, but it does make clear that the work is happening in the public right of way and will require active traffic control. That means normal through movement is off the table in the work zone, and the safest assumption is that trips will take longer during peak travel times. For anyone trying to get across town, the practical move is to leave extra time, avoid the Barrington-City Beach intersection when possible, and expect lane shifts and stop-and-go conditions near SR 20.

The utility job is also tied to a larger street and infrastructure push already planned for the area. Oak Harbor says the Barrington work is being coordinated with scheduled Cascade Natural Gas transmission line maintenance and city sanitary sewer repairs. The city’s SE Barrington Dr Overlay Project calls for an asphalt overlay from SR 20 to SE 8th Avenue, with the Public Works Department having received a $669,000 Washington State Transportation Improvement Board grant in November 2025.

That future project would remove two inches of existing pavement, replace substandard ADA ramps, restripe the roadway with two travel lanes, add a center turn lane for part of the corridor and add buffered bike lanes on each side. The city says the grant covers 76 percent of the repaving cost from Highway 20 to SE 8th Avenue.

For now, the immediate question is how long the current utility work will hold up one of Oak Harbor’s key east-west connections. City officials have said the job should wrap by July 3, but they have not detailed the full milestone schedule or what would trigger another delay, leaving residents to watch the lane closures closely as summer traffic builds.