A Weekly Summary of WSDOT News and Activities
Washington Jobs Now - ARRA: Restoring jobs, self-worth
Charles Graham, Dean Libhart, Erik Buholm and Rich McKinney were all out of work for months before landing jobs on the I-5 Port of Tacoma to King County Line HOV project. |
When work dried up, life went on. A wife battled cancer, a child was conceived, an aging relative required care – and strong men did their best to hold things together, despite being jobless and, at times, hopeless.
“You shouldn’t feel like less of a man, but you do,” said Erik Buholm, a 35-year-old Lacey man with a wife, a 3-year-old daughter and a baby on the way. Buholm has been out of work for nearly a year. That is, until now.
Hope has returned in the form of jobs for Buholm and several other laborers who are back at work, earning their paychecks and self respect on WSDOT’s I-5 Port of Tacoma Road to King County Line HOV project. The two-year freeway widening project is largely funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, an effort to jumpstart our economy and create or save millions of jobs.
Buholm and several others from Laborers’ Local 252 (Tacoma), who are back on the job after months of idleness, offered a few minutes one recent morning before starting work to talk about their struggles, and what these federal-stimulus jobs mean to them.
Dean Libhart of Tacoma is married and has a 3-year-old and a 6-year-old at home. “This (job) is a godsend for my family,” Libhart said.
Michael Joseph, a 53-year-old Spanaway man who’s worked four months out of the last 12, said: “I just about started crying (when I landed the job).” Times have been particularly trying for Joseph, whose wife is fighting cancer. “For me, health care is everything,” Joseph said. And without work, keeping up with health care costs is close to impossible.
Charles Graham, 44, of Key Center, is a single father of an 11-year-old daughter and he takes care of his 63-year-old mother. For more than two decades, he found steady work. That all changed Nov. 7, 2008, the last day Graham worked before starting this new job. “In 21 years, I’ve never seen anything like this,” Graham said.
All of these men are willing and able to work, and say they would much rather earn a paycheck for a hard day’s labor than use the social services that have helped them survive – barely. “The $21 a month in food stamps doesn’t even pay for the milk,” Libhart said. “I had never been to a food bank before. You have to do what you have to do.”
That was yesterday. Today, Libhart and the others were up before dawn, dressed in hard hats and vests. No more time to talk. The trucks are pulling out and these guys need to get to work.
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Maintenance & Operations Feature - WSDOT Maintenance workers add firefighting to their duties
Traffic backed up for miles on I-5 in Lakewood during a brush fire that helped some of WSDOT's Maintenance crew members add "firefighting" to their duties. |
Flusher trucks, shovels, hoses and some unexpected fire-fighting heroes came to the rescue August 18 when flames from a brush fire on southbound I-5 inched dangerously close to the Lakewood Maintenance Facility.
WSDOT halted the Region Maintenance Superintendent meeting and evacuated employees from the building as the rapidly-spreading fire came through the fence surrounding the maintenance facility. The heat was so intense that field mice raced out from under the fence to escape. While firefighters worked to extinguish flames from the I-5 side of the fire, maintenance personnel used hoses on the opposite side of the fence to douse the blaze and wet down areas near the building. Other staff used shovels to smash down the fire.
Joyce Komac, associate maintenance superintendent for Area 1, was impressed by how quickly employees responded. “You would have thought they were trained fire personnel, not mechanics and maintenance people,” she said.
After the flames were extinguished, everyone smelled like they’d been sitting around the camp fire, Komac added, joking, “I wish we would have had hot dogs or at least marshmallows to roast – it was that close.”
Typically, when maintenance crews respond to brush fires alongside the highway it is to assist with traffic control, not saving their work place. Firefighting can now be added to the long list of duties for maintenance employees.
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Update of projects under way
I-5 Arlington - Crews opened a new on-ramp to southbound Interstate 5 at the I-5/SR 531 (Smokey Point) interchange in Arlington on Aug. 28, nearly six months ahead of schedule. The new ramp will help relieve heavy backups on SR 531 (172nd Street NE) during peak commute times. More than 40,000 vehicles use SR 531 to access I-5 each day, and traffic is heaviest for drivers heading from westbound SR 531 to southbound I-5. Crews have completed work on two of the four ramps that will be constructed or improved at the busy interchange. The project is not only ahead of schedule, it is also under budget. WSDOT engineers were able to reduce costs during project design, and bids for the project were lower than the engineering estimate. The total amount budgeted for the project is now $23.5 million, with the majority of the funding coming from the 2005 gas tax.
I-405 Renton - Crews took advantage of good weather to complete the final stages on the new bridge over Oakesdale Avenue SW. during the weekend of August 28. Crews poured concrete, which takes 42 hours to cure, in addition to paving, striping and cleanup work. To complete this work, crews closed the carpool lane on southbound I-405 between SR 167 and SR 181 around the clock from 9 p.m. Friday, Aug. 28, to 5 a.m. Monday, Aug. 31. Paving the bridge means we will stay on track to open an additional I-405 lane in each direction this fall. The work is part of the I-405/I-5 to SR 169 Stage 1 - Widening Project. WSDOT and contractor crews are building a new lane in each direction on I-405 between I-5 and SR 167 and a new lane on southbound SR 167 between I-405 and SW 41st Street.
SR 900 Issaquah - Crews are widening SR 900 from Newport way to the vicinity of SE 78th Street (SE 82nd Street and Talus Drive). WSDOT completely closed SR 900 to traffic on Saturday night, Aug. 29 as crews replaced the culvert at Clay Pit Creek, a half mile south of Talus Drive. A second weekend of closures is planned in early September, when crews will replace the culvert at the West Fork Tributary to Tibbett’s Creek, just south of Talus Drive. The culvert replacements will help prevent flooding and improve fish habitat in Tibbetts Creek and Tibbetts Creek tributaries.
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Announcements
First North Spokane Corridor segment opens to traffic
A crowd gathers to celebrate the opening of the first segment of the US 395 North Spokane Corridor. |
Under clear blue skies with just a slight breeze, well over 500 citizens and dignitaries joined representatives of the WSDOT at the North Spokane Corridor “Celebration of Progress/First Ribbon Cutting on Saturday, August 22, 2009.
Secretary of Transportation, Paula Hammond, WSDOT Chief Engineer Jerry Lenzi, and the Department’s Eastern Region Administrator Keith Metcalf were joined on the platform by 5th District U.S. Congresswoman Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, State Senators Lisa Brown and Chris Marr, State Representatives Alex Wood and Kevin Parker, plus Spokane Mayor Mary Verner and Spokane County Commissioner Todd Mielke and others to address the crowd.
The event commemorated the opening of the first drivable segment (3.7 miles) of , what will be when fully completed, a 10.5 mile freeway facility with an adjacent bike/pedestrian path connecting Interstate 90 near downtown Spokane to the existing US 395 north of the City. The 3.7 mile segment, with one lane in each direction was opened to traffic a few hours after the ceremony, following event cleanup and minor detail work. The next segment, a two-mile piece to the north connecting with the existing US 395 is currently under construction and will open in 2011.
WSDOT seeks proposals from three design-build contractors for SR 520 pontoon construction WSDOT is moving forward with a design-build contract to build pontoons to replace the aging SR 520 floating bridge. Three pre-qualified contractor teams were selected to submit proposals for this $300 million to $600 million contract that is expected to create approximately 2,000 project-related jobs at the height of construction in 2013.
The
SR 520 Pontoon Construction Project includes the design and construction of a new pontoon construction facility in Grays Harbor County beginning in 2010, the design and construction of the new bridge pontoons, and storage of pontoons for the planned SR 520 floating bridge replacement or if they are needed in the event of a catastrophic failure.
The three selected teams are: Grays Harbor Constructors Joint Venture; Kiewit-General a Joint Venture; and Skanska, Mowat, Manson Joint Venture. The contractor teams must submit their proposals to WSDOT by Nov. 24, 2009, and WSDOT is expected to announce the apparent best value proposal before the end of the year.
WSDOT selects contractor to build $19.3 million congestion relief project on I-405 in Bothell WSDOT selected Kiewit Pacific Co., of Renton to design and build a new northbound freeway lane in Bothell that will ease congestion and improve safety on I-405. Crews will build the lane between NE 195th Street and SR 527, where afternoon commuters face severe backups daily. Besides addressing afternoon congestion, the
I-405 Bothell widening project also will help drivers accessing the University of Washington Bothell campus and business parks at NE 195th Street.
This project is funded in part by the 2005 Washington state gas tax package, and the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The federal ARRA funding means the project will be completed three years ahead of schedule. This project will put about 400 people to work, and complete needed improvements early.
Kiewit Pacific Co. submitted the apparent best value proposal with a bid amount of $19,263,000 to complete the design and construction of the project. This represents 36 percent less than the available funds, which is $30 million. WSDOT and Kiewit Pacific Co. expect to sign a contract giving notice to proceed in the next few weeks, and motorists can expect construction to begin later this fall. The project is currently scheduled to be completed by the summer of 2010.
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Open houses, meetings and events
August
31, Monday, 11:35 a.m. - 1:55 p.m., Public input meeting - Ferry fare proposal, Washington State Transportation Commission - San Juan Islands: Proposed ferry fare adjustments are the focus of a series of public input meetings being held by the Washington State Transportation Commission. Comments received will be considered prior to final adoption of the existing or a modified fare proposal, which would go into effect October 11, 2009. The entire fare proposal can be found on the Commission’s Web site at http://wstc.wa.gov/. Location: San Juan Islands, on board the Sealth (inter-island ferry), departs Friday Harbor at 11:35 a.m., Orcas at 12:30 p.m., Shaw at 12:45 p.m., Lopez at 1:05 p.m., and returns to Friday Harbor at 1:55 p.m.
September
1, Tuesday, 6 - 8 p.m., Public input meeting - Ferry fare proposal, Washington State Transportation Commission - Silverdale: Proposed ferry fare adjustments are the focus of a series of pubic input meetings being held by the Washington State Transportation Commission. The Commission approved a new fare proposal at its July meeting and will hold public input meetings in late August and early September. Comments received will be considered prior to final adoption of the existing or a modified fare proposal, which would go into effect October 11, 2009. The entire fare proposal can be found on the Commission’s Web site at http://wstc.wa.gov/. Location: Silverdale Beach Hotel, 3073 NW Bucklin Hill Road, Silverdale.
2, Wednesday, 6 - 8 p.m., Public input meeting - Ferry fare proposal, Washington State Transportation Commission - Vashon Island: Proposed ferry fare adjustments are the focus of a series of public input meetings being held by the Washington State Transportation Commission. The Commission approved a new fare proposal at its July meeting and will hold public input meetings in late August and early September. Comments received will be considered prior to final adoption of the existing or a modified fare proposal, which would go into effect October 11, 2009. The entire fare proposal can be found on the Commission’s Web site at http://wstc.wa.gov/. Location: McMurray Middle School, Multipurpose room, 9329 Cemetery Road, Vashon.
3, Thursday, 9 - 10 a.m., Ribbon cutting, US 101 Purdy Creek Bridge - Mason County: WSDOT and community members will celebrate the completion of the longer, higher US 101 Purdy Creek Bridge, reducing the risk of highway closure due to flooding. Location: George Adams Salmon Hatchery, US 101 north of Shelton.
For more details, please visit the WSDOT Calendar of Events.
Express Lane Archive
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