Rucker Renewal project

The City adopted a Downtown Streetscape Plan (PDF) in 2009 that included projects on Colby, Hewitt, Hoyt and Rucker Avenues. The plan guides most project design elements. The Colby and Hewitt projects have been completed; a portion of the Hoyt project has been completed. The Rucker Avenue project was designed at a 90 percent level in 2011 and put on hold awaiting funding. The project later obtained Washington State Transportation Improvement Board (TIB) funding and was scheduled to be built after the 41^st to W. Marine View Drive corridor project, which was completed in 2017.

Description

• Roadway improvements
• Water and drainage utility improvements
• Urban design features
• Landscaping
• Sidewalks
• Illumination
• Pedestrian improvements
• Traffic signal improvements
• ADA improvements

Project Area

4 blocks of Rucker Avenue between Pacific and Everett avenues, plus 1.5 blocks of Wall Street and a half block of California Street.

Project Cost

The City is leveraging one-time state grant funding with already programmed capital improvement program (CIP) funds to complete the design and construction of the Rucker Renewal project. The project also includes water main replacement between Pacific and Everett Avenue, and utility funds will be used to pay for that portion of the work.

• TIB grant: $4,103,982
• CIP funds: $3,525,520 (budgeted in 2016)
• Total: $7,629,502

• Start construction: Summer 2019
  • Ph 1 completion*: Dec. 2019
  • Ph 2 completion*: March 2020
  • Ph 3 completion*: May 2020
• Complete construction: Spring 2020

*Work is highly weather dependent, and time frames are approximate. Signal work to occur intermittently Jan. through April 2020. Landscaping and pavement markings to occur Feb. through April.

Contractor's construction liaison 

Sherri Pedersen
Email
Outreach 24hr Phone # 206-305-7929

Project Manager

Tom Hood, PE
Email
425-257-8809

Construction factoids, for your information...

• The decision to pour concrete has to be made the night before? The job superintendent has to consider if weather will allow work to continue and whether to deploy truck drivers and tradespeople to the project site the next day. No change to deployment can be made the day of.
• Pouring concrete in the rain is problematic? On a heavy rain day, you might be able to pour curbs, but you can’t pour roadway or sidewalks. Pouring concrete in the rain has a detrimental effect on the finished product.
• Sometimes only a handful of workers are on site at a time because that line of work is necessary before other work can proceed? It is not productive, but it is costly, to have additional trades on site waiting to work.
• Putting in new roads and sidewalks involves the work of many different trades? Having multiple trades working in a given project area simultaneously can create congestion and crew interference, and negatively affects productivity. This is called stacking trades, and it is best management practice to avoid it.
• There are many reasons why a concrete plant might not be open? Roadway construction involves an intricate supply chain, one example being concrete work. Concrete plants are usually closed during cold weather, weekends, nighttime and holidays. Pouring concrete depends upon the concrete plant being open, and if concrete isn’t being made that day, concrete can’t be poured.
• You find all kinds of things under a 100-year-old roadway? Three abandoned oil tanks, an abandoned and deteriorated wood stave water transmission line, voids or empty spaces, unsuitable soils (old dredge spoil soils and organic materials), under sidewalk areaways, and shallow conduits (positioned too close to the surface; required relocating) have all been found under the roadway in the Rucker project. Each discovery requires different solutions that take time. The unsuitable soils alone required more than a week dedicated to additional excavation and backfill with suitable soils.