From the Regional Administrator
Welcome to our June 2011 newsletter. This month, another I-90 project, a new freeway message board, and pavement are our stories.
As always, if you have any questions on items in this newsletter, or other transportation issues, please let me know. Give me a call at (509) 324-6010 or drop me an e-mail at metcalk@wsdot.wa.gov
Keith A. Metcalf, P.E., Regional Administrator
WSDOT Eastern Region
509-324-6010
metcalk@wsdot.wa.gov
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Interstate 90 Spokane area bridge work coming in July
Interstate 90 in the Spokane area will get a little busier in the coming weeks. More than 100,000 drivers a day on I-90 just east of downtown will find their travels slowed during July and August while two freeway bridges get some much-needed repairs and resurfacing. Contractors for the WSDOT will remove the existing asphalt surface and repair the underlying concrete bridge deck and concrete approach slabs on the Altamont Street and Havana Street structures.
Beginning on Monday, July 11, traffic on the busiest segment of I-90 in Eastern Washington will squeeze into two lanes in each direction. The 24-hours-per-day lane restrictions will remain in place until the project’s completion.
To help keep traffic flowing and reduce the potential for collisions, WSDOT will also reduce I-90’s four lanes to two lanes of traffic in the 1.4-mile section between the two bridges. We’ll also close several of the on and off ramps. We need to do this because many drivers will choose to use Second and Third as alternate routes and closing the ramps will keep entering vehicles from causing collisions trying to get on the freeway or exiting traffic from backing up into the mainline freeway.
A project diagram with specific lane and ramp closure information is available on the Spokane Freeway Fix website.
WSDOT last refurbished these two bridges in 1984. Since then, the daily pounding of about 110,000 vehicles has taken its toll, and the two spans need some extra attention.
West Company, Inc. of Airway Heights is the prime contractor for this $1.7 million project. Their crews will be working 24 hours a day Monday through Saturday to minimize the impact to drivers by completing the job as quickly as possible. The contract includes a bonus if the contractor finishes the work ahead of schedule.
We also have a major project on the Sunset Hill to the west of downtown Spokane and a freeway widening project east of Spokane near Liberty Lake. As always, please be extra careful when you are in the “cone zone” and make sure you watch for reduced speed limit signs on some of these jobs.
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New message sign on I-90
Over a three-night period in late June, contractor crews slowed or stopped traffic on westbound I-90 near the Spokane City Limits to place a new variable message sign (VMS) over the freeway lanes. This new sign, near the Custer Road pedestrian overpass replaces an older, smaller sign on westbound I-90 near Altamont Street. The new VMS is mounted on the same support beam as the sign over the eastbound lanes. When fully operational, the sign can alert drivers to slowdowns or collisions ahead.
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Stretching our pavement dollars
Keeping our highway pavements in good condition is a big challenge. And, it’s even more difficult as our budgets get tighter and material prices rise.
We have several cost-saving strategies to help our roads last longer with our limited budget. The first strategy is applying a “chip-seal” layer to some less-traveled highway sections that are normally paved with hot mix asphalt on a 10-12 year rotation. By chip sealing these highways at a cost considerably less than full Hot Mix asphalt paving, we can add several years to the life of the underlying pavement.
Another tactic is “crack-sealing” roadway surfaces. A thick asphalt oil is applied in the cracks on the roadway surface. This helps keep water from getting into the pavement and breaking the highway up during our seasonal freeze/thaw cycles.
We are also starting a new strategic pavement maintenance program. In this effort, we will form a special Eastern Region paving crew with members drawn from our existing staff. This crew will target very short segments on our highway system with crack sealing and partial depth pavement repair paving. These segments would be one half mile or less in length and located on highways throughout the Region. Our goal is to dedicate a small amount of money to fix short problem areas so we can hold off on scheduling a full pavement project for the longer highway section with its associated higher cost. Over the next two years, we’ll invest about $585,000 on this to postpone the need for a full paving project.
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SR 194 paving
In other paving news, we are very pleased with the resurfacing work on State Route 194 in Whitman County. SR 194 is a very busy freight route with heavy grain trucks traveling to the barge terminal on the Snake River.
The southerly four-mile section of this highway includes a very steep grade descending down to the river port and the heavy semi-truck traffic coupled with the steep, curvy grade, has taken its toll on the roadway creating a deeply rutted, broken up surface.
Our Colfax-based maintenance team took on this challenge with a very limited budget. They borrowed some pavement grinding and asphalt paving equipment from the WSDOT South Central Region and went to work resurfacing the highway. In a four-week period, the crew fixed up the highway with a layer of hot mix asphalt, primarily on the downhill lane where the full, grain-laden trucks travel to the port.
The highway still has some serious needs. It was constructed as a seasonal road long before dams on the Snake River created today’s grain barge transportation option and the subsequent freight traffic. A thin layer of asphalt was added to the existing gravel road in the 1970’s.
The crew used a little over $100,000 in asphalt mix for the job. We hope to get a few years of trouble-free performance from the work before more repairs are needed.