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Project Title & Location
SR 539 - Tenmile to International Border
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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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Contractor/Consultant
KPFF is the design consultant
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Recent Progress
KPFF was given Notice to Proceed in April 2004. Surveying and basemapping along the corridor has been completed, and channelization design is well underway at this point. The Value Engineering (VE) study performed in June identified methods to streamline the design and Right-of-Way (R/W) acquisition process, providing both time and possible financial savings, primarily by widening the existing roadway asymmetrically instead of symmetrically - this minimizes the total number of parcels inpacted by the widened R/W, and will provide safer, more efficient construction, while reducing impacts to traffic during construction.
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Design Construction Impacts
NW Region Real Estate Services is in the process of revising the original R/W estimate of $5.3M, given the new asymmetrical configuration. Preliminary indications point to an increase in the R/W costs, likely due to the difference in levels of available design information at the time of the original estimate and now, as well as rising property values.
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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 is currently being examined for implementation on this project.
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Impacts to Traffic
Traffic staging solutions will be developed during design to provide the least impact to traffic during construction.
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