Date:  Saturday, December 22, 2007

Contact: Greg Phipps, WSDOT Communications, 206.437-6314 (Cell)
Colleen Gants, WSDOT Communications, 206.465.2311 (Cell)

RENTON - WSDOT contractor, Tri-State Construction, continues to make good progress on the water diversion system on I-405 in Renton. Crews report the current north pumping system did a good job of pumping water from Thunder Hills Creek away from the roadway during the Saturday morning storm which dropped less than a half inch of rain.

“We have had that system in place for a week and it’s working for us,” said WSDOT Project Engineer Lisa Hodgson. “But we are working toward the least amount of risk to our freeway as possible.”

Lowering that risk even further comes later this afternoon when crews test the first run of the three-pipe pumping and drainage system to the south. Crews are confident it will work. Then they will turn their attention to completing and testing the second run of pipes to the south.

“We’ve instructed our contractor to work all night until that second system is up and running,” said Hodgson. “They tell us it should be operational by Sunday morning at the latest.” (update at 10:55 a.m. Sunday:  the second system is now up and running)

With these two south end systems in place and the north system already operational, WSDOT engineers believe the system will be able to handle more than two inches of rain in a 24 hour period.

Forecasters are predicting an inch Sunday midday.

WSDOT engineers do not want to take any chances if the forecast is wrong. To prepare for the worst on Sunday, WSDOT has:
• incident response teams on stand by
• Washington State Patrol troopers on stand by
• put experienced traffic engineers and communications staff in the Traffic Management Center
• staged additional pumps from Godwin pumping in Kent in case flood waters begin to creep onto the freeway

“If all the pumps are working as planned on Sunday, we don’t think we’ll see an emergency,” said Dave McCormick, WSDOT Assistant Regional Administrator for Maintenance and Operations. “But we must be prepared. If there is a breakdown anywhere in the pumping system, we may be forced to close lanes on I-405 and it will have to happen very quickly to keep drivers safe and the road intact.”

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