Date:  Thursday, March 26, 2009

Contact: Jeff Adamson, North Central Region Communications Manager, Wenatchee, (509) 667-2815, (509) 669-8778 Cell. E-mail: adamsoj@wsdot.wa.gov
Kevin Waligorski, North Central Region Project Engineer, Wenatchee, (509) 667-2860 E-mail: waligok@wsdot.wa.gov

 

WENATCHEE – A $12.9 million contract to construct a project that will reduce congestion by adding a fifth lane to the Senator George Sellar Bridge over the Columbia River in Wenatchee has been awarded to the Max J. Kuney Co. of Spokane.

This is the first of the three projects which together will cost $64 million and take four years to complete.

The SR 285 Additional Lane project adds a fifth lane to the Senator George Sellar Bridge that connects South Wenatchee and East Wenatchee. Space for a new eastbound lane comes by removing the current sidewalks, which will be replaced with a new 10-foot wide bicycle and pedestrian platform outside the superstructure on the bridge’s south side. Construction is scheduled to begin in May until winter stops work and then it will be completed by November 2010.

“Improving traffic near and across the George Sellar Bridge not only relieves traffic congestion between Wenatchee and East Wenatchee,” said Paula Hammond, Washington Transportation Secretary. “We’re talking about investments that create and sustain jobs during these trying economic times – a $12.9 million investment that could mean 129 jobs.”

The entire project budget is $16.48 million, which includes planning, easement acquisitions, design and engineering work already completed in addition to the actual construction costs. Funding comes from the 2005 gas tax package.

The bridge opened to traffic in 1950, replacing the two lane “pipeline” bridge which was the first bridge over the Columbia River built in 1908 to carry traffic and an irrigation pipe to provide water to develop East Wenatchee.

“This project reinforces, replaces or adds 96 truss members requiring some 40,000 high strength bolts to accommodate the additional weight from another lane of traffic and the new “outrigger” pedestrian platform,” said Kevin Waligorski, WSDOT project engineer. “The design of the new members will match the existing bridge structure.”

The second project, building the bypass on the east end of the bridge, will begin in the fall of 2010 and be completed in 2011. The third project addressing the approaches and intersections on the west end of the bridge will be built in 2012. The pedestrian and traffic connections (such as elimination of the west end “weave”) will not be in their final alignment until all three projects are complete.

For more information, visit the project web page: www.wsdot.wa.gov/Projects/SR285/EastGeorgeSellerBridge/

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