WSDOT Projects

If you’ve driven the Guide near Lynden in the past month, you’ve likely noticed a lot of changes. And so have we at WSDOT. So on Thursday, we took a field trip to the construction site with one of our project inspectors to see what’s going on.

We can sum it up for you in one word: dirt. Lots of dirt. Crews move an average of 2,000 cubic yards of dirt per day in order to bring the new lanes up to the height of the current roadway. That’s the equivalent of 15 swimming pools – or for you animal lovers, 672 elephants each weighing 11,000 pounds.

The entire project – including several new bridges – will require up to 500,000 tons of fill material (feel free to do your own elephant calculations). So if you’ve noticed a lot of trucks moving in and out of the construction site, now you know why.

So when will you see paving and bridge building – and those roundabouts? According to our project inspectors, probably not until next year.

Crews should be able to prepare the new lanes for paving this summer and fall, but the thousands of tons of fill that make up the new lanes needs to settle for up to five months. Crews will build three smaller bridges this year, but won’t tackle the new truss bridge over the Nooksack River until the spring and summer of 2009. The bridge should take about six months to build. Construction will start next spring on the four roundabouts, too.

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Stay informed about this project by subscribing to our Whatcom County e-mail updates, or for more detailed project information, check out the project Web page.

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Questions or comments?
Bronlea Mishler, WSDOT communications
360-757-5947
mishleb@wsdot.wa.gov