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Interview: Upcoming spring road projects
 Watch
this video clip (Real Media) Length: (6:23)
Watch this video clip (Windows Media) Length:
(6:23)
Inside Transportation Host Matt Reichmann Says:
All right Jennifer first of all thanks for joining me to talk about
this.
King County CIP and Planning Section Manager Jennifer Lindwall:
Thank you for having me.
Inside Transportation Host Matt Reichmann Says:
I think it's your second appearance with me, and we're glad to have you
bAck. I think in preparation for this segment, we were talking about the
project out at SW 98th. Right now we're talking about the fact that
spring is coming. And that that's a good thing for everybody, the
sunshine's going to come. But also, that's the time when we're going to
be doing more and more construction projects. You were telling me about
a project out at SW 98th, which I think is around the White Center area.
So, tell me what makes this project sort of unique and different.
King County CIP and Planning Section Manager Jennifer Lindwall:
SW 98th street project is actually one of the first of its kind for us.
It's a multi-jurisdictional project meaning that there is involvement
from a couple of different agencies within the county as well as the
King County housing authority that developed the new Green Bridge
housing development up there in White Center. So, the SW 98th, there is
a, Green Bridge Development is currently somewhat separated from the
main White Center commercial business district. So what we're trying to
do is provide a non-vehicle connection so that these people can just
walk to the grocery store or to the coffee shop or whatever. And right
now there is sort of a steep hillside that they would need to cross with
some rickety old stairs, not ADA accessible. So what the county is
trying to do is taking that are and making it friendly for pedestrians,
bicycles, strollers, that sort of thing. We also have involvement from
the Cultural Resources and the Arts Commission. So there's an artist
involved in the project as well. Using the natural form, so instead of
it being a concrete art or a metal art, they're actually going to use
the landscape and do some plantings as their art contribution to the
project. So the hope is that this provides a connection so that people
don't necessarily have to get in their car and drive the long way
around, they have a shorter, more healthy, more accessible way to get to
the businesses on the other side.
Inside Transportation Host Matt Reichmann Says:
And we talk about making communities that are more walkable, and a lot
of different ways to try and get people out of their cars, so this is
sort of both of those things.
King County CIP and Planning Section Manager Jennifer Lindwall:
Both of those things, and also helping with the Climate Change
Initiative and keeping things a little bit greener in many ways.
Inside Transportation Host Matt Reichmann Says:
And speaking of greener, there are also going to be some more ITS
projects coming up. In our last episode, we sort of introduced people to
the idea and how it's out at Trans-Valley and Kirkland and kind of keeps
traffic moving and helps people stay in the car for less time and also
keeps traffic moving. And it's going to reduce green house gases
naturally because of that. So, we have more of those coming up. Also,
give me an idea of how it's working where it's already been implemented.
King County CIP and Planning Section Manager Jennifer Lindwall:
We actually did some before and after studies down in the Trans-Valley
Corridor in south King County. And what we found was, that having these
sort of technological efficiency improvements in the roadway facilitated
traffic moving much smoother. And what we found was about a 30 percent
improvement in travel time throughout the corridor, which is fairly
significant when you're looking at a several-mile-long corridor. So this
year we're going to be out mostly in the northeast King County along
Juanita Woodinville Way, 100th Avenue NE, and Avondale going up into the
Novelty Hill Road corridor to be doing some of the similar treatments in
each of those three corridors. So that we can, hopefully, although we
can't necessarily be adding pavement to make your commute any better. By
using efficiencies and the technology, you can get some benefits and
some travel time reduction, which is what it's all about I think. The
time it takes to get from Point A to Point B.
Inside Transportation Host Matt Reichmann Says:
The way the traffic is in the area. It just seems to keep getting worse
with how many people are driving and how the population keeps going up
so that's a good thing. The last thing that we wanted to hit on was
short-span bridges. These are, well by definition they're shorter than
20 feet. They're the kinds of bridges you can drive over and not even
realize that you did drive over a bridge. But a lot of them are aging
and lot of them were made out of timber in the 1950's, so it's kind of a
priority for us. Give us an idea of what's going on in that process.
King County CIP and Planning Section Manager Jennifer Lindwall:
It's going to be a multi-year process to start replacing some of these
short-span bridges. As you said, many of them were built in the 50's,
many of them are timber. And based on the construction and the way that
they were built in the 50's, a lot of them use creosote. Some of that
now, the timbers are breaking down, they're rotting inside. We live in a
wet environment, which is not always conducive to good use of sturdy
wood. So having a systematic program to go out and start replacing those
has been a fairly important part of our program and what we've been
striving to do for the past couple of years. The problem for us is that
they're not eligible for traditional bridge-type grants so they're
completely on the county's dime. And figuring out a way to get the most
bang for the buck if you will. So what we've been doing is starting to
look at developing the program. We did two short-span bridges last year.
Kind of got our feet wet with it and figured out a few things. The
program is going to replace about four per year for the next six to
eight years and hopefully that will take care of the high-priority ones.
Most people are going to notice that when we do these, they're clustered
because of efficiencies. So that we might have a contractor that does
all four of them, similar in nature and in a similar geography so that
they don't have to mobilize in multiple different locations throughout
the year. And this year we're going to be focusing on the eastern part
of King County, east of Lake Sammamish. And we've got a couple bridges
that are going to be replaced out there this year. And then we'll move
about the county a little bit over the course of the six-year CIP. And
we're going to be replacing about $18 million in replacing these bridges
for the six-year program that we've got going right now.
Inside Transportation Host Matt Reichmann Says:
All right, so some serious work going on this construction season.
King County CIP and Planning Section Manager Jennifer Lindwall:
We've got some good projects going on.
Inside Transportation Host Matt Reichmann Says:
All right, thank you very much for joining me, Jennifer.
King County CIP and Planning Section Manager Jennifer Lindwall:
Thank you.
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