A Weekly Summary of WSDOT News and Activities
November 3, 2008 Weekly Report - Time 5:00 (mp3)
Project of the Week - SR 410 near Chinook Pass has been repaired just in time for hunting season
The eastbound lane of the washout was restored by constructing a steel and pressure treated wood retaining wall. |
A slope washout that occurred last winter, three miles east of Chinook Pass, has been repaired and both lanes of the roadway are open to two-way traffic.
Since the spring reopening of Chinook Pass, drivers have been limited to one-way alternating traffic in the short section of the washout (three miles east of the summit). The eastbound lane was restored by constructing a steel and pressure treated wood retaining wall.
Pile Contractors, Inc, of Issaquah, accelerated the start of the contract and completed the work ahead of schedule. The $236,000 contract took two weeks to complete.
WSDOT closes Chinook Pass each winter, usually in the third week of November, due to high avalanche risk and hazardous driving conditions. When the snow storms start dropping large amounts of snow on the pass, the slide areas near the summit pose a significant danger to travelers, WSDOT maintenance crews, and Mount Rainier National Park staff.
The combination of avalanche danger, mountainous terrain, lack of cell phone service, inclement weather, and the low number of vehicles, make driving these passes in the winter a potentially hazardous endeavor. If someone had a problem, such as going off the road, it could be many hours or days, before anyone could find them, which could be fatal in winter weather conditions.
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Maintenance & Operations feature - WSDOT employees teach high school students a lesson in highway construction
WSDOT's Matt Lewis, a Maintenance Technician 2, talks with a student about the equipment used in highway maintenance work. |
Bus loads of students arrived bright and early on October 23, 2008 at the Washington Construction Teamsters Training Center in Pasco for the Third Annual Construction Career Day.
“I believe we had about 400 students attend this year’s event,” said John Huff, WSDOT’s Program Supervisor for the Office of Equal Employment and On the Job Training. “This is a great opportunity for WSDOT to participate with many of our everyday customers at an event that introduces students to construction related careers.”
For one day students from the Yakima Valley and the Tri-Cities had the opportunity to find out what it’s like to work in the highway construction industry by participating in “hands-on” demonstrations and learning how the industry’s heavy equipment works.
“I was busy all day showing the students how the equipment worked,” said Bobbi Sanders, WSDOT Maintenance Technician. “This was a great opportunity for me and my crew to interact with students and show them what we do everyday.”
More than 20 construction businesses and government agencies, including WSDOT, volunteered their time at this year’s event. Construction Career Day is presented in response to the predictions of an increase in demand for construction workers in the coming years. Fueling that demand is an increase in construction projects and a large number of current workers nearing retirement. The Federal Highway Administration estimates that close to one million new construction jobs will be created over the next three years.
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Update of projects underway
I-5 Seattle - This week (Sunday, Oct. 26 through Thursday, Oct. 30) crews are performing seismic retrofit work on two bridges in the downtown Seattle I-5 corridor. Crews will work nights to finish up seismic retrofit work on the I-5/I-90 interchange bridge and begin retrofitting the I-5/Spokane Street interchange bridge. Work hours are from 8 p.m. until 5 a.m. The work will bring these bridges up to current seismic standards, reducing the chance of damage during an earthquake. These projects are part of WSDOT’s seismic retrofit plan to strengthen more than 900 bridges statewide.
SR 16 Burley - Crews will close lanes of SR 16 in Kitsap County in preparation for work to build the new Burley Olalla Road interchange. During the closure, crews will pave the detour route to get drivers around construction. Drivers can expect westbound SR 16 to be reduced to one lane from 6 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7, until noon Monday, Nov. 10. Five weeks later, the work moves to eastbound SR 16, restricting the roadway to one lane from 6 p.m. Friday, Dec. 12, through 6 a.m. Monday, Dec. 15. Once the detours are paved, eastbound and westbound traffic shifts off the mainline and onto the detours, which are essentially the new on- and off-ramps to Burley Olalla Road. Shifting SR 16 traffic allows construction of new bridges over Burley Olalla Road to begin.
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Announcements
Travel Washington Apple Line provides needed bus service in North Central Washington
On Oct. 28, a formal ribbon cutting ceremony in Omak celebrated a new 160-mile “Apple Line” bus route from Omak through Wenatchee to Ellensburg. The Apple Line joined the Grape Line in Walla Walla and the Dungeness Line on the Olympic Peninsula to round out the state’s Travel Washington network of intercity bus service. Travel Washington connects communities by linking rural towns and cities with urban areas, connecting them to national intercity bus, rail and air service.
The Travel Washington Apple Line is part of the only Intercity Statewide Network in the nation to be funded through a Federal Transit Administration (FTA) pilot program that matches private sector investments with federal grant funds. Greyhound Bus Lines provided the local match and the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) awarded a grant to Northwestern Trailways to provide the Apple Line service.
“Rural residents have fewer transportation choices available to them,” said WSDOT Secretary Paula Hammond, “The Intercity Bus Network improves mobility for rural residents and helps connect Washington communities.”
Speed enforcement cameras out of Chehalis work zone
Automated traffic safety cameras (ATSC) are no longer active in a Lewis County work zone. While the cameras may be gone, roadway work continues in Chehalis and many other spots in Washington. WSDOT and the Washington State Patrol remind drivers to Give ‘em a Brake and slow down in this area and all active work zones.
Oct. 28, WSDOT crews removed the “Speed Limit Photo Enforced” signs near the work zone on I-5 south of Chehalis. Drivers may continue to see the SUV unit on I-5 near Chehalis for another few weeks, as it will be collecting data. However, all photo enforcement was complete as of Friday, Oct. 24. WSDOT will not use the ATSC unit during winter months, but has plans to use the program in active construction zones in Spring 2009.
WSDOT launched the ATSC pilot project Sept. 15. Located in an SUV parked along the highway within an active construction work zone, the ATSC radar and camera unit recorded the speed and photographed the rear license plate of vehicles speeding through the work zone. An operator monitored the system and forwarded violator information to the Washington State Patrol. The WSP then checked the vehicle registration and the registered owner received a $137 citation. As of Friday, 1,197 were issued. Results of how driver behavior changed during the ATSC unit deployment will be available later this year.
90-car ferry Sealth to serve Anacortes/San Juan Islands route
The 90-car ferry Sealth began service on the Anacortes/San Juan Islands route on Sunday, Oct. 26. This means a slight reduction in vehicle capacity for the route.
The Sealth is coming out of a nine-week drydock period for planned maintenance. When the Sealth arrives in Anacortes, the 144-car Elwha will head south for three days of service on the Seattle/Bremerton route, and then into drydock until early December for its scheduled maintenance. The other vessels currently serving the Anacortes/San Juan Islands route are the 144-car Yakima and the 124-car Chelan, with the 87-car Evergreen State providing inter-island service.
With a lack of back-up vessels in the ferry system, WSDOT must plan vessel moves to accommodate planned maintenance while minimizing impacts to customers. This becomes especially difficult during the winter maintenance season, when more vessels must be removed from service for annual maintenance and inspections.
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Gray Notebook Highlight - Centerline Rumble Strips
In 2006, there were 65 fatal collisions on state highways where "over centerline" was identified as a contributing circumstance. To reduce these collisions, WSDOT has installed centerline rumble strips on roughly 960 miles of highway. Rumble strips are grooves or rows of raised plastic markers that alert drivers by causing noise and vibration when they drift from their lane. WSDOT engineers have conducted preliminary evaluations for 518 miles of rumble strips that have been in place six months or longer. Preliminary results indicate a 28 percent reduction in all fatal and serious injury collisions; a 26 percent reduction in cross-centerline collsions; and a 50 percent reduction in fatal and serious injuries resulting from cross-centerline collision. It should be noted that these reductions may not be entirely attributed to rumble strips as other safety improvements may have been done at the same time. More details on this topic can be found in the June 2008 Gray Notebook at: www.wsdot.wa.gov/accountability.
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November open houses, meetings and events
6, Thursday, 3:30 - 6:30 p.m., Open house, US 97A North Wenatchee Rock Slope Stabilization - Entiat: WSDOT engineers are seeking comments as they work to fine-tune the traffic control plan for the US 97A slope stabilization project. The nature of the work will require long daytime highway closures for more than a month in summer 2009. Location: Entiat Grange Hall, 14108 Kinzel St. Entiat.
For more details, please visit the WSDOT Calendar of Events.
Express Lane Archive
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