Date:  Monday, September 21, 2009

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

WENATCHEE – Pedestrian and bicycle traffic will be allowed over the south sidewalk on the Senator George Sellar Bridge as early as next Monday, Sept. 28. “If everything works perfectly,” said Project Engineer Kevin Waligorski, “We will have a temporary pedestrian path in place to Valley Mall Parkway when the Apple Capital Loop Trail’s pipeline pedestrian bridge is closed for painting.”

Wenatchee’s stimulus-funded pedestrian bridge painting project requires that it be closed on weekdays and possibly some weekends. With the Sellar Bridge closed to pedestrians for the construction project that is adding an additional lane, Loop Trail users would have had only the option of using WSDOT’s free LINK transit service to cross the Columbia at the scheduled times on weekdays and Saturdays. “We’ve removed the north sidewalk, but the south sidewalk won’t be removed until next spring,” said Waligorski, “Since the support columns for the new bike and pedestrian bridge, next to the path’s route, are finished now, we found a way to provide a 24/7 alternative for bicyclists and pedestrians, using the south sidewalk and a temporary trail, until next spring.”

This week, Max J. Kuney Co. construction crews are extending a path from where the sidewalk ends at the east end of the bridge around the inside of the loop ramp, under the bridge and then several hundred feet across a field to connect to an existing sidewalk to Valley Mall Parkway, across from Sears. “It will all be paved and we’ll have fencing in place to keep bicyclists and pedestrians separated from traffic and from our construction sites,” said Waligorski, “The contractor has been extremely cooperative, changing schedules and work plans to clear the site and do the work immediately.”

The path construction, paving and fencing will cost about $25,000. “We really wanted to do everything we could to keep our project going and help Wenatchee’s project be successful at the same time,” said Waligorski.

The $12.9 million project to build an additional eastbound lane on the Senator George Sellar Bridge began construction on May 11 and work will continue until winter shutdown in November. The entire project should be complete by the fall of 2010.

Visit the project web page: www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr285/eastgeorgesellerbridge/

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