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Project Title & Location
SR 539 - Ten Mile Road to Badger Road Widening
MP 6.13 to MP 12.54
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Project Description
Widening Guide Meridian Road to four lanes will increase safety and traffic capacity along this heavily-traveled traffic corridor. This widening work will also provide an additional lane of traffic in each direction along a major freight corridor between Bellingham and Aldergrove, British Columbia.
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Recent Progress
Project design continues to steadily move ahead, focusing now on structures and finalizing the proposed design elements. In response to comments received during the public Open House held early in spring 2005 a fifth roundabout has been added to the project at the intersection of River Road. After conversations between WSDOT and the City of Lynden, the roundabout which had been under consideration at the intersection of Main Street in Lynden will not be added to the project. The intersection will still be widened in conjunction with the rest of the project, but a traditional traffic signal will control traffic flow. The recently available geotechnical recommendations indicate very poor soils; WSDOT Bridge is now working closely with the Design Office and Pan-Geo to refine the Nooksack Bridge and foundation configuration in order to provide a final design which clear-spans the river while minimizing settlement issues stemming from poor soils. This has led to the test pile project that occured in the summer of 2006 just south of the Nooksack River adjacent to SR 539.
A Cost Risk Assessment (CRA) was completed in late August 2005. The CRA examined numerous risk factors in the project, including among others the potential for environmental/permitting complications and rising materials costs. The goal of a CRA is not only to find cost savings but to identify area's of the project that can be identified that will lead to the highest cost saving or create the highest risks if left under managed. This report identified the crossing of Wiser Lake and the need to insure that the plans contain as much information as needed to minimize uncertainty as two areas that can be targeted to minimize potential risk as the project moves forward. From a financial standpoint the CRA identified the need for an added $25,000,000 in order to successfully deliver and construct this entire cooridor. This includes an added $17,500,000 to cover increases in real estate costs in this cooridor, $5,000,000 for increases in construction costs being seen in the industry and $2,500,000 for development costs. If this money cannot be allocated, with the current funding, we will be able to purchase real estate and construct a segment from Tenmile Road to just south of the City of Lynden (Stage 1). Any real estate acquisition or construction beyond this point (Stage 2) would need to wait for added monies.
Appraisals in the southern half of the project, Stage 1, are now underway, and administrative offers (AO’s) are being readied. Representatives of the Real Estate Office have started contacting property owners with property offers on the southern portion of this project. The southern R/W plan was revised somewhat to reflect a shift in alignment at the southern end of the project, between Tenmile Road and King Tut Road. The alignment shift was made in order to avoid impact on a parcel where the Guide Meridian Water Association wells were located. R/W acquisitions for the northern section (Stage 2) are awaiting a determination of added funding requests.
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Design Construction Impacts
While funding has been transferred to allow Stage 1 R/W acquisition to continue without further delay, even with the added allocation noted above, it will still be a challenge to acquire all of the project R/W for Stage 1. The Department's Real Estate Office is projecting a completion date of November 2007 for the acquisition of all needed property for the construction of Stage 1, Tenmile Road to Lynden.
With the lack of funding for Stage 2 the earliest any construction could start on this section is Spring of 2010 due to the time needed to acquire right of way and relocate utilities.
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Environmental Impacts / Compliance
An Environmental Assessment was completed with a finding of "no significant impact" in 1998. These documents are being updated. A new basin-wide approach to wetland mitigation continues to be examined for implementation on this project, and may include the use of offsite wetland mitigation.
The Design Office and NWR Environmental are currently working with FHWA in order to minimize schedule impacts resulting from the presence of two Section 4(f)/6(f) parcels along the corridor. We are pursuing programmatic Section 4(f) inclusion for the project impacts to these parcels, which should reduce the risk to project schedule.
Environmental documents obtained to date: EA w/4(f) (9/98), FONSI (4/99), SEPA adoption (5/99). SEPA adoption will need to be repeated as part of EA update process.
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Impacts to Traffic
We are currently developing alternative ways to stage construction so that there will be fewer lane closures and smaller delays on traffic during construction. It is planned that at one lane in each direction will be provided during daylight hours.
Nightime closures of SR 539 are being investigated with traffic being rerouted to county roads.
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