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Storm repairs take center stage as county
launches 2006 construction season
 The
2005-2006 storm season may seem like a distant memory for King County
residents, but it represents a multi-million dollar challenge for road
workers as they swing into high gear for the start of a new construction
year.
“We have more than $7 million in storm damage from this past winter to
repair, and several big-ticket projects that are becoming increasingly
urgent, such as rebuilding the aging seawalls on Vashon Island and
replacing the South Park Bridge that is very near the end of its useful
life,” said Linda Dougherty, director of the
King County Road Services
Division.
“This construction season our highest priority will have to be repairs
that improve safety and preserve our network of roads and bridges.”
The news is not all storm related. Construction is scheduled this year
on: a new Tolt Bridge near Carnation; completion of the York Bridge
north of Redmond; intersection improvements on Petrovitsky Road and
Military Road; and many miles of repaving.
And, there is good news about a project that was completed in 2006 to
speed up traffic across the Kent Valley. Preliminary results show that
the signal synchronization project on key arterials from Fairwood to
Southcenter is already delivering congestion relief just weeks after
being completed.
 The
$4 million Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) program for the Trans
Valley Corridor coordinated 22 traffic signals along a seven-mile
stretch on the north end of the Kent Valley. The purpose was to minimize
the number of stops and delays and to improve the traffic flow for the
corridor. Since the signals were connected in April, travel times have
decreased by 10 to 15 minutes in the heaviest travel directions.
“Before we could even get our first set of traffic data back, people
were calling us with compliments,” said Supervising Engineer Norton
Posey. “They said: ‘We don’t know what you did out here, but I’m not
stuck in traffic anymore.’ That made us really happy, because we
designed the project so commuters can travel through the corridor with
shorter time and are more likely to pass through intersections without
frequent stops, except for very congested areas. It looks like it’s
working well.”
The project begins on the east at 151st Avenue Southeast in the Fairwood
area and then follows along Southeast Petrovitsky Road to Southeast
176th Street, Southeast Carr Road, Southwest 43rd Street, South 180th
Street, ending at Southcenter Parkway.
 Another
construction project underway and on schedule is the new York Bridge on
Northeast 116th Street near the 60 Acres soccer complex. The supports
for the new bridge are in, and now crews are working on the deck and
approach road using some innovative materials.
Because the bridge over the Sammamish Slough is surrounded by peat soil
that compacts easily, the
 Roads
Division needed to use lightweight fill for the approach road on the
west side. They turned to “geofoam blocks” made out of Styrofoam, which
will be placed between concrete panel walls. On top of the foam, will be
a concrete slab – called a “load distribution slab” – which weighs down
the blocks to keep them in place and distribute the traffic loads. Next
is a layer of soil, then the asphalt layers.
 This
technique will make it possible to raise the road elevation in order to
run the Sammamish River Trail under the new bridge – instead of over the
road like it was before – which will improve safety for trail users and
motorists. The new bridge is scheduled to open in early September.
New projects starting in 2006 include the long-awaited replacement of
the Tolt Bridge on Northeast Tolt Hill Road. The new bridge will be
built approximately 165 feet south of the current bridge.
 The
$24 million project involves building a 963-foot-long bridge on a new
alignment made up of two 300-foot-long trusses over the west side of the
Snoqualmie River and the river itself, and a concrete girder section on
the east side. The twin trusses will be reminiscent of the existing
bridge. Construction will last for up to two years and begin this
summer.
In addition to building the bridge, the project involves widening and
realigning Northeast Tolt Hill Road, both east and west of the new
bridge to improve sight distance and safety. Aside from two multi-week
closures for construction and periodic maintenance closures, the current
bridge will remain open while the new bridge is being built, and will be
dismantled after the new bridge is open.
 On
Vashon, there are three separate aging seawalls on the island that need
to be rebuilt. The Roads Division will start temporary repairs in June
on the portion along Dockton Road Southwest, where the old
timber-and-rock seawall is rapidly deteriorating. The division is
currently studying a long-term solution for the Dockton Seawall.
The Roads Division’s maintenance section has a long list of more than 40
culvert replacement projects. The projects are spread across the county,
but there are several concentrated in the Cherry Valley area southeast
of Duvall and on Vashon Island. Maintenance crews expect to begin work
on the list this year, and probably finish up in 2007.
Replacing aging culverts that carry water underneath a roadway is
critical to keeping that roadway from failing. As the concrete –
sometimes even wood – culverts grow older, they begin to crumble and the
road above them begins to buckle or sink. The goal is to replace the
culverts before the roadway damage becomes serious and much more costly
to repair.
The Roads Division will also be installing sidewalks near several
schools in unincorporated King County this summer, including: Hollywood
Hills Elementary; Sandberg Elementary; and Maplewood Heights Elementary.
The Roads Division would like to do more large construction projects,
but funding is limited. In 2002, statewide voter approval of Initiative
776 repealed the $15 vehicle license fee that the Roads Division had
used to back bonds to finance major capital projects. Since that time,
an equivalent source of funding has not been found for county and city
road construction needs.
“We would like to be doing more to add capacity to our road system and
replace or rehabilitate aged infrastructure at a faster pace – but we
just don’t have the funds,” said Dougherty. “So, in times like these, we
must focus on preserving and maintaining our roads and bridges to make
them last as long as possible.”
For more information about construction projects in unincorporated King
County, visit Road
Services' Capital Improvement Program (CIP) Web site.
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