2003 Award of Excellence Winners

WSDOT & FHWA Recognize “Excellence in Local Agency Projects
The Awards of Excellence program is a collaborative effort between WSDOT Highways and Local Programs and FHWA to formally recognize local agency projects that have achieved excellence in construction, innovative design, environmental compatibility, and public involvement and satisfaction. The award categories are Best City Project, Best County Project, Best Enhancement Project, and Best Special Project (this year, two very distinct projects were chosen in this category). Following are winners of the 2003 Awards of Excellence.

• Best City Project:

  Port Townsend’s F Street Improvement Project
  
  The F Street project brings a great transportation improvement to the city of Port Townsend that its citizens can be proud of. The overriding goal of the F Street Improvement Project was to improve traffic mobility and safety through the residential areas, while maintaining the character of the surrounding neighborhoods. Several traffic-calming measures were incorporated into the project, including meandering the roadway where possible, five-foot islands in straighter sections of the road, and two speed tables designed for 25 mph. Safety enhancements for pedestrians and bicyclists were accomplished by narrowing intersections and crossing distances, an in-pavement lighted crosswalk at a high school crossing, bicycle travel lanes and signage, and controlled street and driveway access.
  
  Funding sources for the F Street Improvement Project included approximately $1 million in local funds, $594,882 in federal funds administered through H&LP, and $1.3 million in Transportation Improvement Board funds. For more information about this project, contact Ken Clow, City of Port Townsend Public Works Director, at (360) 385-7212.    Back to top

• Best County Project:

  Kitsap County’s NE West Kingston Road
  
  The NE West Kingston Road project brings a community friendly transportation improvement to Kingston. It began with three governing principles: improving traffic circulation and vehicle safety; improving bicycle and pedestrian safety; and improving multi-modal transportation between rural areas and the public port, ferry, and transit facilities in the urban and commercial areas of Kingston. The project included improvements to both rural and urban road cross-sections. The rural cross-section consisted of widened paved shoulders for pedestrians and bicyclists. The urban cross-section incorporated designated bicycle lanes, a sidewalk separated from the roadway by a landscaped strip, security lighting next to the sidewalk, and closed stormwater conveyance systems where none previously existed. With an increased number of school-aged children using this roadway (three schools access NE West Kingston Road), these improvements provided safer facilities for pedestrians, bicyclists, and vehicles.
  
  Funding sources included approximately $4.7 million in local funds and $1.2 million in federal funds administered through H&LP. For more information about the NE West Kingston Road project, contact Randy Casteel, Kitsap County Public Works Director, at (360) 337-5777.    Back to top

• Best Enhancement Project:

  Raymond’s Northwest Carriage Museum
  
  The Northwest Carriage Museum houses a very unique bit of transportation history and will be a centerpiece of the city of Raymond, not only for residents, but for tourists as well. The project began with Gary and Cec Dennis donating their collection of 22 horseless carriages to the City of Raymond. Citizens of Raymond formed the Northwest Carriage Museum Association and began planning and extensive fund-raising, culminating in an amazing array of funding partners. Six government agencies with eight different grants, one private corporation, and five foundations were involved in funding the project. It is very uncommon to have twenty different funding sources in a federal aid project! The museum building was designed to blend with the nearby Willapa Seaport Museum and the waterfront. The project is sited on a reclaimed rail corridor owned by Washington State Parks and is in use as a recreation /trail area.
  
  Funding sources included approximately $312,000 in local funds and $288,000 in federal funds. For more information about the NW Carriage Museum, please contact Rebecca Chaffee, Raymond Public Works Director, at (360) 942-3451.    Back to top

• Best Special Project:

  Tacoma’s Chihuly Bridge of Glass
  
  The Chihuly Bridge of Glass is destined to become world famous. The innovative design of this project created a grand entrance into newly revitalized downtown Tacoma. The bridge exhibits glass art in the “Seaform Pavilion”, “Crystal Towers” and “Venetian Wall”. The project began as a partnership between Tacoma native and world-renowned artist Dale Chihuly, the City of Tacoma, and the Museum of Glass. The pedestrian bridge spans the I-705 freeway and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe West Coast main line tracks, and it serves as a safe pedestrian hub linking together several districts, public facilities, and Tacoma’s waterfront. The project plays a strategic role in building community livability with centralized growth, residences, recreation, commerce, and enhanced non-motorized transportation.
  
  Funding sources for the Chihuly Bridge of Glass project included approximately $4.7 million in local funds and $1.7 million in federal funds. For more information about the project, contact William Pugh, Tacoma Public Works Director, at (253) 591-5525.    Back to top

• Best Special Project:

  Port of Longview’s Fibre Way Overpass
  
  A brand new plastic highway solves a major transportation problem for the Port of Longview. The grain trains entering the Port are a significant economic factor for Longview and the state of Washington. Delaying the trains and traffic around the Port area mean extra cost and lost profits. The trains cross SR 432 twice and California Way once. Each train blocks the crossings coming into and leaving the Port. These blockages can last up to 10 minutes and it can take up to 45 minutes for traffic to clear. Also, when the trains block the crossings simultaneously, the Port is cutoff from all emergency services. To solve this enormous problem, the Port assembled a team of consultants to evaluate the current situation and provide a conceptual design for a new rail corridor. As a result, the Fibre Way Overpass/Alternate Rail Corridor project was developed. Both the overpass and the new rail corridor will eliminate a majority of train crossings, which will in turn, eliminate the potential for train-vehicle accidents.
  
  A major challenge of the Fibre Way Overpass project was that the site could not tolerate settlement. The solution was to use a geofoam (a type of plastic insulation material) fill for the bridge approach fills. The concept behind the geofoam fill was to calculate the weight of the fill, excavate an equivalent weight of existing material from the bridge approaches, and then construct the geofoam fill. The result was a fill with no added weight. To date, there has been no settlement in the bridge fills.
  
  Funding sources for the Fibre Way Overpass included $2.7 million in local funds, $2.4 million in federal funds administered through H&LP, $2 million in Transportation Improvement Board funds, and $2.8 million in Freight Mobility Strategic Investment Board funds. For more information about this project, contact Norm Krehbiel, Port of Longview Director of Facilities & Engineering, at (360) 425-3305.    Back to top