Date:  Monday, October 25, 2010

Contact: Jeff Switzer, WSDOT Communications, 206-819-7230 (cell)
Suanne Pelley, WSDOT Communications, 206-770-3578, 206-437-5717 (cell)

Governor, officials celebrate $306.3 million project from Medina to Bellevue

SEATTLE – Gov. Chris Gregoire joined legislators, Eastside mayors, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and Eastside Corridor Constructors in a groundbreaking ceremony today to celebrate the upcoming construction of the SR 520 Eastside Transit and HOV Project.

The project is expected to create hundreds of jobs, require tons of steel and concrete and strengthen the regional economy.

“This project will put people to work today, and get people to work faster in the future,” Gov. Gregoire said. “It’s a win-win for our economy and our roads, and replacing the vulnerable floating bridge is essential to our region.”

WSDOT recently opened bids and the Eastside Corridor Constructors joint venture team emerged with the apparent best value proposal. The team’s bid price of $306.3 million is nearly $116 million less than the state’s $422 million estimate for the project. A contract is expected to be awarded in coming weeks.

“The excellent bidding environment means taxpayers’ money continues to go further, which is crucial because our transportation needs are so great,” said Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen (D–10th District), Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee. “Proceeding with this project now not only puts people to work at a time when we need to boost employment, it comes at a time when we can get more for our money.”

The groundbreaking ceremony was held on property purchased by WSDOT for the project. The site will include environmental improvements and a regional bicycle and pedestrian path.

“It’s great to be here and show that the regions have come together to support this project. Working with the Governor, Legislature and WSDOT, we are united in improving our transportation system to meet our needs now and into the future,” said Rep. Judy Clibborn (D–41st District), Chair of the House Transportation Committee.

When completed, the Eastside project is expected to reduce travel times for buses and carpools and improve safety, access and reliability in the corridor. Construction is expected to begin in early 2011.

“We’re breaking ground on a project that will transform this corridor,” Washington Transportation Secretary Paula Hammond said. “With better interchanges and continuous HOV lanes, we’re going to make SR 520 work better for everyone, each of the 190,000 people in 115,000 vehicles that use this corridor daily to cross Lake Washington.”

Eastside Corridor Constructors is a joint venture of Granite Construction Co. and PCL Construction Services. ECC was one of three world-class teams competing for the design-build project. ECC’s proposal stood out in part because it plans to complete the project more quickly than WSDOT required. The proposal also included fewer complete highway closures on weekends and fewer lane closures overall during construction.

A design-build contract combines project design and construction in a single contract. A designer and contractor jointly submit a detailed design proposal with a fixed price, giving opportunities for innovations and assuring WSDOT and taxpayers that costs are controlled. The winning team is chosen for its apparent best value proposal, calculated based on bid price and technical proposal scores.

The construction contract will include:

• Widening the corridor and constructing new transit and carpool lanes, shoulders and other facilities along 2.5 miles of SR 520 from west of Evergreen Point Road to east of 108th Avenue NE in Bellevue.
• Constructing three landscaped lids over SR 520, two with access to new transit stops that also will be built as part of the project.
• Constructing newly aligned general purpose ramps and direct-access ramps for buses and carpools at 108th Avenue NE.
• Adding a regional path for bicycles and pedestrians.
• Constructing fish-passable culverts, stormwater-detention and treatment facilities, noise walls, and stream and wetlands improvements.

The Eastside project is funded in part by toll revenue to be collected on the floating bridge starting spring 2011. The Legislature set the SR 520 program budget at $4.65 billion for improvements from I-5 in Seattle to SR 202 in Redmond. Toll revenue and state and federal funds provide about $2.37 billion for the SR 520 improvements. WSDOT will continue to work with legislators to identify additional funding to complete improvements in the corridor.

More information about the SR 520 Program and the Eastside Transit and HOV Project is available at www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/sr520bridge. A conceptual video of what the project will look like when built also is online.

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