Date:
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Contact:
Al Gilson, Communications Manager
WSDOT Eastern Region
2714 N. Mayfair
Spokane, WA 99207
(509)324-6015
gilsona@wsdot.wa.gov
Work on the next major component of the North Spokane Corridor freeway is slated to start on Monday, March 10th. The contract is a railroad tunnel construction project.
The project—US 395/BNSF Railroad Tunnel, consists of building a 1,330 foot tunnel to carry the Burlington Northern trains under the new North Spokane Corridor freeway. The tunnel will be 54 feet wide, enough width to accommodate a future second set of tracks. The tunnel consists of 444 pre-cast concrete arch segments that will be placed over the tracks then covered with fill. The concrete freeway lanes will then be constructed over the new structure.
The tunnel will be built for the tracks near Market Street in the vicinity of Magnesium and Hawthorne Roads
The contractor will get underway with clearing work on Monday.
No construction traffic impacts are expected. Beginning in August the individual concrete sections will be trucked from the fabrication facility in the Spokane Valley to the site.
Scarsella Brothers, Inc. of Seattle is the prime contractor on this project with a construction bid of $17.29 million. The job is expected to take two construction seasons to complete, wrapping up in mid 2009.
When this contract is completed, we will be able to open the first segment of the North Spokane Corridor freeway to traffic.
This project is the sixth of eight jobs for the US 395/North Spokane Corridor freeway project that were funded by the Nickel Gas Tax, enacted in 2003. The first stretch, from Francis to Farwell Road, should open to traffic in 2009. When all eight projects are complete in about 2011, a drivable link will be available to motorists between Francis Avenue and the existing US 395 near the Wandermere Golf Course.
For more information on this, and other NSC construction contracts go to our web site: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/US395/NorthSpokaneCorridor/Francis_Farwell/ and http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/US395/NorthSpokaneCorridor/US2_Wand_Low/ . The individual contracts are listed on the left side of these two sites.
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