Date:  Friday, February 29, 2008

Contact:

Contacts: Jeff Adamson, North Central Region Communications Manager, Wenatchee, (509) 667-2815, (509) 669-8778 Cell. E-mail: adamsoj@wsdot.wa.gov

Bob Romine, Project Engineer, Wenatchee, (509) 667-2880, E- mail: rominer@wsdot.wa.gov

Visit the project web page: www.wsdot.wa.gov/Regions/NorthCentral/projects/SR28RockIslandSlopeStabilization/

WENATCHEE -- The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) will close State Route 28 near Rock Island Dam for four days over Spring Vacation to stabilize a rock slope above the highway. We held two open houses last summer to find out when and what kind of closures would have the least impact. Based upon that input, the design, plan and schedule were completed and the project was advertised for private contractor bids in November. In December, the project was awarded to Janod Inc. for $2.4 million, 25% under the engineering estimate.

The closure is necessary for the third phase of this $8.5 million project that started in 2002. More potentially dangerous rock will be removed and steel nets will be installed over the western-most part of the slope, across from the dam.

The four day continuous closure will begin on Friday, March 28th at 9 p.m. and run until Wednesday, April 2nd at 5 a.m. An extensive notification system is in place to help drivers plan ahead for this closure, including newspaper and radio advertisements, roadside electronic message signs and highway advisory radios as well as news releases, web page and 5-1-1 telephone messages. This third phase of the project itself will be accomplished in two stages – the four days of rock scaling during Spring Break and the crews will return in early August and work into October installing the steel net. Stage 2 will only require some occasional lane closures and short delays.

It takes about a half-hour to drive between East Wenatchee and Quincy. When the highway is closed, drivers will face nearly 90-miles of detour through Waterville and Ephrata or over Blewett Pass to I-90. An average of 6,500 to 6,900 vehicles per day traveled past Rock Island Dam in 2006. In an effort to reduce the number of days the roadway is closed, the contractor is being offered an incentive for early completion of next month’s first stage work.

In 2002, the first phase of the slope stabilization project blasted rock from the eastern-most portion of the 300-foot slope and cost $2.4 million. The second phase, in 2004, cost $2 million and constructed a large concrete wall to hold rock in place above the western-most section where phase three will take place.

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