They may have seen it in plans already, but now motorists can see it in plain sight: They’ll be driving a very different state Highway 502 between Interstate 5 and Battle Ground once crews finish expanding the corridor.
Orange fencing already marks the widened right of way along the roadway that will eventually carry four lanes of traffic. The area is buzzing with activity as construction crews make preparations and clear the way. That work began in earnest earlier this year, capping more than a decade of planning.
“Folks that have been involved in this over the years are really just happy to see work getting done,” said Chris Tams, an area engineer with the Washington State Department of Transportation.
WSDOT expects to have parts of the highway realigned and on new pavement by the end of this year, Tams said. But the bulk of the expansion work is slated for next year. The entire $85 million project will wrap up in 2016, according to WSDOT.
That’s a year later than planners had originally hoped. The project was delayed because of a longer-than-expected property acquisition process. WSDOT had to acquire at least a portion of about 180 parcels along the corridor.
For now, much of the focus is on utility work. Five separate construction contracts include crews working under Clark Public Utilities and NW Natural, Tams said. WSDOT’s main contractor on the project is Rotschy of Vancouver.
Clark Public Utilities is completing both electric- and water-related work on the site, said spokeswoman Erica Erland. Workers are relocating existing power lines, as the utility does whenever roads are widened into existing easements. On the water side, they’re also installing new transmission mains to serve customers in the area, she said.
“By combining our water system expansion with the road construction we are able to take advantage of significant cost savings,” Erland said in an email.
In other areas, workers are already building the foundation of the highway. About 1,200 concrete pilings, all in a stretch of about 1,000 feet, will help support the roadway in that area, raising it above soft, mucky material underneath. Some of the shafts for those pilings are already in the ground.
The unusual construction method will help strengthen the highway over unstable ground below, Tams said. The natural material in that spot simply wouldn’t do the job, he said.
“It feels like a water bed,” Tams said.
The new pilings dot an area next to another work site crews finished two years ago. North of the highway, WSDOT completed a wetland mitigation site in 2012. That’s essentially a new wetland that crews built to offset natural areas buried by construction.
Mill Creek zigzags along the highway, before Mill Creek North heads toward the East Fork of the Lewis River. The wetland site created new habitat and vegetation within that system. Two years in, the area appears to be functioning well, said WSDOT environmental coordinator Kevin Workman.
“The more the plants get established, the better it’s going to be able to control the water coming in and out,” Workman said. So far, “everything is coming together really nicely,” he added.
Planners hope the end result on Highway 502 eases congestion and improves safety along the busy corridor. The project has already transformed the area as homes and businesses relocated or closed to make room.
How the corridor redevelops after construction equipment is gone will be up to local leaders and other agencies, Tams said. WSDOT’s involvement largely ends when the highway is finished, he said.
