Date:  Monday, March 23, 2009

Contact: Jeff Adamson, North Central Region Communications Manager, Wenatchee,
(509) 667-2815, Cell (509) 669-8778

Eric Pierson, North Central Region Project Engineer, Wenatchee, (509) 667-2870

OLYMPIA – Gov. Chris Gregoire and the Washington State Department of Transportation today announced that two more Washington Jobs Now projects — both in Eastern Washington — are moving forward with funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

“The severity of last week’s jobless number underscores the challenges we face. Our primary focus is to save and create Washington jobs,” Gregoire said. “We are doing this by partnering with the Obama administration through federal stimulus funding that puts people to work.”

The projects include paving two segments of state highway — the $6.29 million SR 17 Grant County Airport North and the $2.29 million SR 282 Ephrata South lengths.

“The ARRA investment in Washington Jobs Now projects supports desperately needed jobs and stimulates local economies,” said Paula Hammond, Washington Transportation Secretary. “These projects are also needed to improve the movement of freight and goods between Ephrata and Moses Lake. The projects were without funding until the governor and Legislature included them in the supplemental transportation budget that included federal monies.”

The two paving projects were combined with a $4 million project to build 4½ miles of passing lanes on SR 17. Bids for the 13-mile paving and passing lane project will be opened and a contract awarded by mid-April. Construction could begin as early as May. The $12.6 million contract is expected to support more than 125 jobs.
Washington received $492 million in federal ARRA funds for state highway investments, which included $341 million that will fund 34 state highway projects. WSDOT will distribute $170 million in ARRA funds by July 1.

The project segments will build 4½ miles of 12-foot-wide passing lanes with 4-foot shoulders on SR 17 between the Grant County Airport and Rocky Ford Creek. The 2-mile-long northbound passing lane will start at South Neppel Road and end at Northlake Road. Two miles of southbound passing lane will be built between North Neppel Road and Northlake Road, and another half-mile-long passing lane will start at South Neppel Road and end at McConihe Road.

The stimulus paving projects resurface all eight miles of SR 17 from the Grant County Airport in Moses Lake to the junction with SR 282, and from there, all five miles west on SR 282 to the junction with SR 28 in downtown Ephrata.

For more details, visit the project Web page: www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr17/northmoseslakepassinglane/.

Three more ARRA stimulus chip-seal paving projects on SR 155 at Omak, SR 262 at the Potholes Reservoir and SR 243 through Beverly, worth $4.1 million, will be advertised for bids on April 6. Those projects will support another 41 jobs.

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