Date:
Friday, December 02, 2005
Contact:
WSDOT NC Region Communications Manager Jeff Adamson (509) 667-2815 E-Mail: adamsoj@wsdot.wa.gov
WSDOT NC Region Project Engineer Bob Romine (509) 667-2880
E-Mail: rominer@wsdot.wa.gov
WENATCHEE – The first of 16 median cable barrier projects funded with the 2005 legislature’s Transportation Partnership Account is complete, 29 days earlier than expected. The project – actually two projects bid together to save taxpayers in contract administration costs – installed 16 miles of barrier between lanes of I-90 in Grant County.
“We just beat the weather,” said Project Engineer Bob Romine. “The snow hit yesterday (Thursday, Dec. 1) just as Frank Gurney’s crews finished removing construction signs and final clean up … We all wanted those barriers in place before the winter snow season.”
Romine said that extra crews from the Contractor, cooperative weather, and extra work hours and holiday work accounted for the early completion.
This $868,841.50 project added cable barrier from George, four miles west to Silica Road (the exit to the Gorge Amphitheater) and from Moses Lake, 12 miles east to just beyond the Adams County line. Work began Oct. 10 and was scheduled to be complete in 65 working days. Stage 1, the George to Silica Road segment, was complete Oct. 28. Stage 2, from Moses Lake east to the Adams County line, began Oct. 31 and was complete Dec. 1.
Frank Gurney, Incorporated of Spokane submitted the successful low bid on the project for a price below the WSDOT engineering estimate. Gurney had strong experience in the work, having installed the median cable barrier in the other two sections of I-90 between Moses Lake and George over the past two summers. With experienced crews and the right equipment, Gurney’s bid was lower than the estimate for mobilizing equipment and traffic control. The biggest savings – almost $800,000 came in reduced prices for the cable barrier itself. Despite rising steel prices, competition among several new suppliers cut the expected cost per foot by half,
The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Official (AASHTO) published benefit/cost analysis of median cable barrier showing such projects to be among the most cost-effective highway safety investments to reduce fatal and disabling accidents. Construction in Western Washington on another of the median cable barrier projects supported by the new gas tax increase got underway after Thanksgiving. Those contracts address another 63.6 miles at 11 locations in six Western Washington counties on several state and interstate highways. Visit the project Web page: www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/CableBarrier/default.htm
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