Redmond residents, workers and anyone passing through town may want to find alternate routes to their daily commutes as the city has a number of road construction projects scheduled for this year.
The five projects’ timelines are scattered with the earliest beginning this spring and the latest scheduled to be completed next year.
“These projects represent the city’s commitment to keep pace with growth by investing in our vital infrastructure,” said Redmond Mayor John Marchione. “This is one of the top priorities identified by citizens as being most important in maintaining Redmond’s quality of life.”
REDMOND WAY OVERLAY
Ron Grant, assistant director of public works for the City of Redmond, said the biggest upcoming project will be the Redmond Way overlay, which will extend from the Kirkland-Redmond border at 132nd Avenue Northeast to Bear Creek Parkway. This project will include an asphalt overlay and the installation of curb ramps for easy access for all users. There will also be drainage work done as part of this project.
Grant said this thoroughfare used to be State Route 908 before Redmond and Kirkland successfully petitioned the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) about five years ago to have the roads turned back to the cities. Federal dollars had already been budgeted to pay for the construction project and WSDOT agreed during the negotiation process to give that money to the Redmond and Kirkland. The Redmond portion of the federally funded project is $2.5 million.
“We’re very grateful,” Grant said about the federal dollars.
He added that the city hired a consultant to do the design for the project and this cost about $280,000.
The City of Kirkland will also be doing construction on its portion, which becomes Northeast 85th Street, so commuters can expect delays along the corridor from Interstate 405 to Bear Creek Parkway.
“It will be quite disruptive to do this work,” Grant said. “It’ll be a challenge but we’ll be doing the major work at night and on the weekends.”
Construction is scheduled to begin in May and end in November.
OVERLAKE STREET RESURFACING
Grant said the City of Redmond also does street resurfacing annually and they will be focusing on the Overlake neighborhood later this spring.
The work will be done on 148th Avenue Northeast between State Route 520 and Bel-Red Road and 156th Avenue Northeast between Bel-Red Road and Northeast 28th Street.
Grant said Redmond has an agreement with the City of Bellevue as it is also doing roadwork in Overlake. Redmond will pay for its portion — about $300,000 — but Bellevue will do the work, which is scheduled from spring to fall of this year.
The work on 148th Avenue Northeast will be done weeknights between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.
“You literally can’t do that work during the day,” Grant said, referring to the already-congested traffic in the area.
Most work on 156th Avenue Northeast will be done weekends between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. Shorter-term single-lane closures will be done during weekday hours.
“These projects are the result of careful planning and budgeting and we’re fortunate (to have) the funding to make them a reality, especially in a time when many cities continue to struggle,” Marchione said. “The city will be very proactive in communicating project schedules and potential impacts to help motorists avoid as much inconvenience as possible.”
City-funded capital projects are paid for through Redmond’s capital budget which is $165 million for the 2011-12 biennium.
“We have a very robust construction budget as we typically do every year,” Grant said.
He added that the city’s current total biennium budget, which includes the capital budget, is $523 million.
LOW-IMPACT PROJECTS
Beginning this summer, the city is scheduled to begin construction on extending 164th Avenue Northeast from Northeast 76th Street to Cleveland Street.
The project is estimated to cost about $3.5 million and Grant said it is integral in creating the street grid in the downtown.
As most of the work will be done on a stretch of road that still has to be constructed, there will be minimal traffic impacts only where 164th Avenue Northeast intersects with Northeast 76th and Cleveland streets. The work is scheduled to be completed spring 2013.
Another upcoming project that will have minimal traffic impacts is the downtown portion of the Redmond Central Connector (RCC). The project is estimated to cost about $4.7 million, with about $1 million in state money and about $3.5 million in federal grants.
Construction on the linear park and trail is scheduled to begin this summer and end spring 2013. Traffic impacts will be where the trail intersects with the downtown streets of Leary Way, 161st, 164th and 166th avenues northeast as well as 170th Place Northeast.
Grant said while this is not exactly a road project, the city’s public works department does all the work on construction projects — from design to construction — and different groups coordinate with each other so work done in nearby areas is completed more efficiently.
“We believe that continuity leads to better coordination,” he said. “It’s been a very successful model that has worked for public works.”
The final project in Redmond this year is the construction of rain gardens in Overlake Village, scheduled to begin this summer and end in the fall.
There will be rain gardens along 152nd Avenue Northeast between Northeast 28th and Northeast 31st streets and between Northeast 24th and Northeast 21st streets. The gardens will also be along 151st Place Northeast north of Northeast 24th Street and along Northeast 21st Street between 152nd Avenue Northeast and Bel-Red Road.
Grant said this is another low-impact project in terms of traffic delays as the work will mostly be done along sidewalks.
For more information about upcoming construction projects, visit http://tinyurl.com/c77v3om.
