PORT ANGELES, Wash. – Work will remain on hold at a downtown construction site where animal remains were found earlier this week, giving archaeologists time to determine whether the area is of significance to local American Indian tribes.

More archaeological study is planned at the International Gateway Transportation Center, a $14 million project where bone fragments were discovered Tuesday.

The fragments were found while crews were disposing of material excavated from about 14 to 16 feet below street level.

The bones had obviously been cut with a bonesaw, said Mark Madsen, city manager.

“They did the right thing in shutting everything down to evaluate and compile the information,” said Frances Charles, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe chairwoman.

The find comes about 2 1/2 years after work was halted at a state Department of Transportation construction site in Port Angeles where workers uncovered human remains and artifacts from a former Klallam village.

Charles said the tribe is considering placing monitors to oversee work at the Gateway site.

A day after the bones were discovered, National Park Service archaeologists Dave Conca and Kim Kwarsick, and the tribe’s archaeologist, Bill White, agreed the fragments were animal bones, Port Angeles city spokeswoman Teresa Pierce said.

The bones were turned over to Elwha officials, Pierce said. They are being stored in the same undisclosed location as those from the Klallam village site, Charles said.