Date:
Friday, January 12, 2007
Contact:
Dave Mariman, State Specifications Engineer, 360-705-7831
Jeff Adamson, North Central Region Communications Manager, Wenatchee, (509) 667-2815, (509) 669-8778 Cell. E-mail: adamsoj@wsdot.wa.gov
OLYMPIA – In keeping with the Washington State Department of Transportation’s accountability efforts, the agency’s yearly report card of highway construction projects is now available at www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects.
The 2006 Construction Highlights report is a self-assessment of WSDOT’s delivery and performance of project construction. It provides a snapshot of the variety, complexity, and size of WSDOT’s construction program. During 2006, WSDOT completed a billion dollars worth of projects for the first time - 185 of them ranging in cost from $95,000 to $615 million. Each spring WSDOT picks about two dozen highway construction projects that are expected to be completed during the current construction season.
“A majority of our projects went very well in terms of meeting schedule and budget,” said Dave Mariman, WSDOT State Specifications Engineer. “For those projects where we struggled, it clearly demonstrated that good design and planning play a key role in our being able to deliver a successful project. In the projects where the front-end work was inadequate, it ended up costing us in delays and budget overruns.”
Projects were selected prior to the start of construction on the basis of diversity of contractors, project managers, environments, and types of construction. They were rated on four elements of project delivery: design, contract administration, cost and schedule. For every project in the report, the project engineer describes the project’s purpose and what happened during construction – what went well, what the challenges were, and what could have been improved.
The four elements were evaluated using standard criteria and were given a rating of one to five stars, with five being the highest. Of the 25 projects judged for 2006, 6 got 5-star ratings in all four elements, including two out of the three evaluated from the North Central Region:
- Chelan County: SR 207, Wenatchee River Bridge – replaced bridge rail to bring up to safety standards
- Moses Lake: I-90 Potato Hill Bridge – replaced the last low-clearance bridge on I-90
- Vancouver: SR 14 Lieser Road Bridge Repair – repaired damaged bridge girders
- Franklin County: SR 17 Mesa to Basin City Road – paved two miles of highway and enhanced safety
- Clallam County: SR 112 Bear Creek Culvert – replaced a culvert with a fish-friendly structure
- Redmond: SR 202, 244th Avenue NE – added new signal and turn lanes at the intersection
The third project from North Central Region, the US 97 Wells Dam/Starr Boat Launch that WSDOT built for the Douglas County Public Utility District received 16 of 20 stars.
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