Date:
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Contact:
Al Gilson, Communications Manager
WSDOT Eastern Region
2714 N. Mayfair
Spokane, WA 99207
(509)324-6015
gilsona@wsdot.wa.gov
SPOKANE-Contractors for the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) will wrap up two major Spokane area projects ahead of schedule and within budget.
The big job, a two-season project to resurface a 1.7-mile section of Interstate 90 in downtown Spokane, will finish two weeks earlier than planned. The contractor was given 95 calendar working days to do the job but should get everything wrapped up in about 80 days. In addition, there were no major weather-related interruptions during the past three months.
If all goes well during the next 10 days, with no weather or equipment-related problems, work on the freeway should be done by the morning of Monday, August 6th.
The next 10 days will be extremely busy with a variety of traffic configuration changes and nighttime single-lane traffic. Crews will be removing temporary barrier, installing lane striping, changing signs, and other items as this project comes to a close.
Safety will be extremely important during this phase. Beginning on late Tuesday or early Wednesday (July 31 or August 1), two lanes of westbound traffic will be moved over onto the new concrete. One westbound lane will remain closed and crews will be immediately adjacent to moving vehicles separated only by traffic barrels as they work on the center concrete barrier. Motorists need to be extremely alert and adhere to the 45 mph speed limit.
During evening and overnight hours traffic will be reduced to one lane in each direction. Daytime traffic will remain two lanes in each direction.
One change that may affect drivers is the return of the westbound Maple Street on-ramp to a single-lane on-ramp. This may cause congestion on Maple and Third Avenue.
As the work continues through the week crews will remove the temporary barrier and other construction facilities. It is possible that the westbound Maple exit will open early in the week.
Some additional work on the eastbound Division Street exit will require some evening and overnight closures. On Wednesday (Aug. 1), Thursday, and possibly Friday, the eastbound Division Street exit will be closed from about 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. for concrete repair.
By Saturday morning (Aug. 4) at about 6 a.m., all westbound I-90 lanes, on-ramps, and exits will be open to traffic. The westbound speed limit will be reset to 60 mph. Eastbound traffic will still have ramp restrictions and the speed limit will remain at 45 mph.
Work will continue around the clock on the final freeway construction items.
By 6 a.m. on Monday morning (August 6), all eastbound lanes, on-ramps, and exits will be open to traffic and the eastbound speed limit will return to 60 mph.
The contractor will then work on removing construction signage on city streets for about two or three days.
Two Spokane-area firms combined to tackle this major project. Degerstrom/Acme Joint Venture handled the work over the last two seasons. Because of the tremendous traffic impacts to Interstate 90 and downtown Spokane Streets the contractors were given an incentive to complete the work as quickly as possible while still maintaining a safe environment for their workers and the motoring public. The contractors will earn a $50,000 incentive bonus for finishing 15 days early.
The I-90/Sullivan Road concrete paving project will also be done ahead of schedule.
The work to resurface Sullivan Road between Mission Avenue and Indiana Avenue in the Spokane Valley will wrap up this weekend, a few days ahead of schedule. The existing asphalt pavement was replaced with Portland Cement Concrete Pavement in a fast-paced project that is a part of the I-90/Sullivan Road Interchange.
It’s expected that Sullivan Road and the eastbound I-90/Sullivan exit and on-ramp will open to traffic Friday evening or early Saturday morning (July 27 or 28).
Sullivan Road was fully closed from just north of the Mission Avenue intersection to just south of Indiana Avenue. This included the bridge across the freeway. In addition, the eastbound Sullivan Road exit and on-ramp for Interstate 90 was closed. This enabled the contractor to do their work on a fast-track schedule without the need for extensive traffic control. The full closure allowed the job to be performed over a period of a few weeks, avoiding several months of traffic gridlock.
Acme Concrete Paving, Inc. of Spokane was the prime contractor on the job. This project also included an incentive of $5,000 per day for early completion.
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