Vancouver drivers heading to their destination using Northeast 18th Street should allow some extra driving time in the coming months.
Construction kicks off this week on Northeast 18th Street from Four Seasons Lane east to Northeast 136th Avenue and is scheduled to continue until early 2018.
The street is scheduled for some major upgrades, improving the traffic signal system, street lights, adding travel lanes and bike and pedestrian facilities, according to information from the city of Vancouver.
Total construction costs are estimated to tally about $12.5 million, with $6.5 million coming from federal grants and $4 million from state grants, and the rest from local resources.
Battle Ground-based Tapani will be the general contractor. Work is scheduled to stretch throughout the day from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Work could continue during the weekends and later into the evening.
Drivers should drive with caution through the area and be prepared for possible lane changes.
Northeast 18th Street was a narrow two-lane county road originally. Officials have long considered improving the corridor, even as far back as the 1970s when it was part of unincorporated Clark County, according to information from the city.
A reconfiguration of Interstate 205’s Mill Plain exit — the final step in a web of state infrastructure projects that ran from 2003 to 2016 — which added freeway ramps at 18th, made the work even more urgent.
