A Weekly Summary of WSDOT News and Activities
Washington Jobs Now - ARRA funds help build Aberdeen Transit Station
ARRA funds are helping to improve and expand the Aberdeen Transit Station, which will enhance both passenger and vehicle safety. |
With the help of an American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant and additional funding from a Federal Transit Administration grant, Grays Harbor Transit has started construction of the Aberdeen Transit Station expansion and improvement project.
The project is designed to enhance safety for both riders and local traffic and to accommodate future growth of bus ridership. The Transit Station improvements include expanding the size of the station, installing better lighting, adding security cameras and providing a covered seating area for passengers. A park and ride lot will be expanded to provide parking for up to 35 vehicles, and sidewalks and bike racks will make the station more accessible.
Currently, buses leaving the station pull onto Wishkah Street, one of the busiest traffic corridors through Aberdeen, and must merge across three lanes of traffic in order to turn onto their routes. When the station project is completed, bus traffic will enter onto a less busy street where they will be routed to a signalized intersection to cross Wishkah. These revisions will help improve traffic flow and vehicle safety.
"Without these funds, we were about $500,000 short and would have needed to scale the project back," said Mark Carlin, Grays Harbor Transit General Manager. "The federal funds allow us to complete the project the way it was designed, giving us a sheltered area for passengers and room for expansion of service in the future. These funds are definitely being used for a good cause."
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Maintenance & Operations feature - WSDOT Maintenance worker honored for life-saving action
WSDOT's Charley Hazen (second from left) is honored by State Trooper , Olympia Mayor Doug Mah and Attorney General Rob McKenna. |
WSDOT's construction and maintenance crews spend a significant amount of time and effort setting up warning signs for drivers and reminding them to "Give 'em a Brake" by paying attention in highway work zones. Despite these efforts, crews may find themselves in harms way and they are reminded of the importance of always being prepared for an emergency. Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna recently honored one WSDOT worker for being prepared and saving a co-worker's life.
WSDOT maintenance lead tech Charley Hazen, while working inside an active work zone on SR 14 in southwest Washington, heard an urgent call from his flagger. The radio call came with a dire warning - a semi-truck ignored the work zone signs, flagger and line of cars waiting for an open lane. This truck was heading straight towards Hazen and a co-worker who was in the bucket of a high lift, chipping loose rocks off of a cliff about 50 or 60 feet in the air.
Not having many options, Hazen jumped in a truck and parked it cross-wise in the road, blocking the semi’s path. If the semi hit the high lift, it would have been a sure fatality for the worker in the air. Because of Hazen’s safety preparedness training, combined with heroic quick action, this story has a happy ending. Hazen's actions caught the attention of the semi-driver and brought him to a stop. The semi-truck driver, who was charged with endangering a highway worker and reckless driving, is currently paying off a very steep fine.
Hazen and nine others from across the state were honored for heroic actions during a Safety Fair in Olympia on September 11.
Update of projects under way
US 12, White Pass - Crews begin construction on the last of three projects on US 12 between the Cortwright Creek Bridge in Lewis County and the Lewis/Yakima county line near White Pass on Sept. 21. The construction zone is located approximately three miles north of the Cortwright Creek Bridge (mile post 143.16). The soil and rock slopes that support this portion of US 12 have sustained a great deal of erosion in recent years due to heavy snowmelt and flooding. Crews will improve drainage and strengthen the slope supporting US 12 to help avoid future erosion. Work will involve drilling into the rock face and installing porous material to redirect water flowing under the surface of the soil. The slope will then be reinforced with wire and concrete. Weekday traffic will be reduced to one lane around-the-clock with a traffic signal alternating vehicles through the area. US 12 will be restored to two-lane traffic over the weekends. In addition to this project, WSDOT completed two adjacent projects earlier this summer that paved US 12, stabilized slopes and improved erosion issues along the highway.
SR 531 Smokey Point - Crews will fully close a short section of SR 531 west of Smokey Point for a week starting Monday, Sept. 21.
Crews will close SR 531 between 11th Avenue NE and McRae Road NW at 8 a.m. Monday, Sept. 21. The roadway will remain closed around-the-clock until 8 a.m. Monday, Sept. 28. Drivers will follow a signed detour. During the closure, crews are replacing the existing culvert at Cougar Creek with a larger concrete box culvert. WSDOT temporarily repaired the culvert after it collapsed last fall. Now crews will remove the damaged culvert, replace it with a box culvert, and rebuild the roadway. The new culvert will stabilize the highway and help protect against future storms. It will also improve fish passage on Cougar Creek.
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Announcements
Washington seeks Recovery Act TIGER grants for three high priority projects
WSDOT submitted applications on Sept. 15 for three high priority projects in King County, Vancouver, and Spokane to compete for the $1.5 billion available in TIGER Discretionary Grants, part of the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
WSDOT applied for grants to build portions of the SR 520 Bridge Replacement program ($300 million), the Columbia River Crossing ($147 million), and the North Spokane Corridor ($35 million). Each of the projects proposed to receive funding will improve mobility in major freight corridors, complement current state highway investment, and provide jobs in communities experiencing significant business closures and unemployment.
The $787 billion Recovery Act Congress passed in February included $1.5 billion for Surface Transportation Discretionary Grants, called TIGER grants. The U.S. Department of Transportation will review and score each application through a competitive process. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is expected to select projects in January. States are eligible to receive up to a maximum of $300 million in TIGER grants.
WSDOT seeks firms interested in designing and building the SR 99 bored tunnel project
WSDOT issued a request for qualifications on Sept. 15 to contractors interested in building the proposed SR 99 bored tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct – the first step in the process to select a design-build contractor to deliver the tunnel project.
The RFQ asks teams to submit a statement of qualifications by Nov. 16, 2009, which WSDOT will evaluate and score. The agency plans to announce in January a short-list of three to four most qualified design-build teams to submit proposals. Those proposals will detail the firms’ plans for constructing a tunnel boring machine, the final design and construction of a new bored tunnel beneath downtown Seattle beginning in 2011, and the interior roadway, tunnel systems, ventilation buildings and connections to the portals. The successful team will be selected at the end of 2010. The contract is estimated at approximately $1 billion. Additional contracts for tunnel portals and other work are forthcoming, and will bring the total cost of the bored tunnel to $1.9 billion.
While preliminary design of the tunnel progresses, the state is moving forward to replace almost half of the Viaduct with a new roadway south of downtown near the sports stadiums. Road and bridge construction on this new mile of SR 99 will begin early next year.
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September open house
23, Wednesday, 6 - 8 p.m., Open House, SR 9 212th St SE to 176th St. SE Widening - Snohomish: WSDOT's project team will present changes to the project design and ask for feedback from community members. The project will widen more than two miles of SR 9 from a two-lane road to a four-lane divided highway from SR 524 north of Bothell to 176th St SE in the community of Clearview. Location: Valley View Middle School, 14308 Broadway Avenue, Snohomish.
For more details, please visit the WSDOT Calendar of Events.
Express Lane Archive
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