South Parkway project underway

“I’ve lived in Battle Ground my whole life,” Frahm said. “This street has needed to be redone my whole life.”

Tapani Inc. is handling the project, and the Battle Ground company’s contract started Monday. The contract is for 150 working days, which would take construction through Oct. 3, according to Ryan Jeynes, associate civil engineer with the city and the design engineer and project manager for the South Parkway construction. Of course, any unforeseen issues could push that date back, Jeynes said.

So far, the contractor has been doing some preliminary work, while NW Natural moves gas lines from underneath South Parkway to Southwest Second Avenue. As part of the project, Battle Ground is moving some other utilities under South Parkway, and the gas lines had to be moved to make room. While the city had the road opened, officials decided to extend some water lines and replace other ones.

The project is being done in two parts: from Southeast Rasmussen Boulevard to Southwest Eaton Boulevard and from Southeast Rasmussen to Main Street.

“South Parkway is going to be basically a new road,” Jeynes said.

The southern portion, from Rasmussen to Eaton, will see a bulk of the work, as that section of the road is in worse condition and has fewer modern features.

“The contractor is going to remove the entire road, asphalt and subgrade, and any unsuitable material under the road grade, and build the road back up again,” Jeynes said. “We’re going to add new sidewalk on the east side, bike lanes on the east side, LED street lights on the east side and planter strips, and then we’re always replacing the sidewalk on the west side.”

The southern section will also see the addition of a middle left-turn lane.

The northern part of South Parkway already has a middle left-turn lane and sidewalks, but has some other needs.

“The northern section has various bad spots throughout where the subgrade is failing,” Jeynes said. “What were doing is grinding off the top two inches, repairing those areas that need to be fixed and repaving the whole road. All the ADA ramps are being replaced from Southeast First Street to Rasmussen.”

Funding for the project is coming from various sources, a bulk of which is made up by two Washington State Transportation Improvement Board grants for a total of $4,305,216. One grant from the board’s Urban Arterial Program is for $3,938,469, and that grant is being used for the southern portion of the road. Funding for the northern portion comes from the board’s Arterial Preservation Program, which awarded the city a $366,747 grant.

The rest of the project’s funding is made up of $695,000 from traffic impact fees, $65,000 from the transportation benefit district, $498,350 from the water fund and $41,000 from the sewer fund.

City spokeswoman Bonnie Gilberti said Battle Ground officials have tried for more than 12 years to get funding for the project, but since there aren’t a lot of accidents on the road, and that section of road isn’t in a commercial or school zone, they haven’t had much luck.

With funding secured and construction getting started, city officials and residents are excited to see how an improved South Parkway will impact the city.

“A lot of people don’t travel on it now because of its condition,” Jeynes said. “With it being repaired and almost a new road, maybe they’ll find quicker ways to get around. It will be a nice gateway into the center part of downtown.”