Date:  Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Contact: Bronlea Mishler, WSDOT Communications, 360-757-5947

BELLINGHAM – Drivers who regularly travel the Guide Meridian between Horton and Ten Mile roads will notice a smoother trip – and fewer delays – starting Wednesday morning.

Crews have completed widening work on the west side of the road and have paved all but a small section of the roadway. On Wednesday morning, June 18, crews will shift drivers to the new pavement so they can widen the east side of the highway. This is the last traffic disruption drivers should see until fall, when crews wrap up the project.

One small section on the west side of the highway near Deer Creek still needs to be widened and paved, but crews must wait for a fish window – a time when work will have limited effects on fish – before they complete work. Crews expect to complete this section by fall.

Drivers will notice crews working at night on the east side of the project to install box culverts and sanitary sewer crossings. The work will be done at night and off the roadway, and should have minimal effects on traffic.

Crews will widen and pave the east side of the project a little at a time during the course of the summer. The paving should be substantially complete by late August to early September. Crews will need to put down one final layer of asphalt from shoulder to shoulder, which should happen by the second week of October.

The new, widened Guide will open to drivers mid-October, though some minor striping and lane marking work may need to be done in the spring of 2009.

For more information, visit the project Web site: www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/SR539/HortonTenMile/  

To share your thoughts on the Guide widening project, visit the new WSDOT Guide Meridian blog: http://guidemeridian.blogspot.com/  

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